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THE 


/uoitiDe  Sim  pill : 


HISTORY  MD  UNCONSTITUTIONALITY: 


WITH    AN    ACC0L":NT    OF    THE 


SEIZURE  AND  ENSLAVEMENT 


JAMES  HAMLET, 


A^-D  ms 


UBSEftUENT  RESTORATION  TO  LIBERTY 


riLLIAM   EARNED,   61    JOHN    STREET. 

Price  $2  a  hundred ;  single  copies,  5  cents. 

1850. 


.  *»". 

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PREFACE 


Office  of  the  American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society,     } 
61,  John  street,  Xew-York,  October  7,  1850.  J^ 

This  Review  of  the  infamous  Bill  recently  passed  by  the  Congress  of  the  Tnited 
States  has  been  hastily  prepared,  with  a  view  to  meet  the  present  exigency,  and  the 
author  has  freely  availed  himself  of  such  helps  as  were  at  hand.  A  wide  circula- 
tion should  be  given  to  the  pamphlet.  To  enable  the  friends  of  freedom  to  accom- 
phsh  this  object,  it  will  be  sold  by  the  thousand  or  hundred  at  the  bare  cc.t. 
They  are  earnestly  entreated  to  have  a  copy  put  into  the  hands  of  every  citizen 
in  the  Free  States,  and  to  have  copious  extracts  made  for  the  public  press. 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Society  believe  that  the  heart  of  every  anti- 
slavery  individual  will  deeply  sympathize  with  the  panting  fugitive.  They  trust 
that  the  dwelling  of  every  citizen  will  be  an  asylum,  or  place  of  protection ;  and  that 
in  view  of  his  extraordinary  circumstances,  and  the  approaching  cold  weather, 
clothing,  and  otlier  necessary  articles,  will  be  furnished  with  a  liberal  hand.  They 
would  not  recommend  that  fugitives  go  to  Canada,  at  least  on  the  approach  of 
winter;  but  if  any  go,  that  they  be  men  without  families.  It  is  well  for  every 
fugitive  to  avoid  large  cities  and  piibhc  houses. 

The  free  people  of  color  are  advised  to  remain  at  their  posts,  unmoved  and 
"  unawed,"  and  each  one  to  consider  his  dwelling  his  castle.  In  case  of  assault 
or  molestation,  they  may  be  assured  that  they  will  be  effectuaUy  aided  by  their 
white  friends.  The  opposition  to  the  wicked  Bill  is  general  and  strong  ;  and  if 
those  exposed  to  be  its  victims  are  circumspect  and  fearless,  the  opposition  will 
increase,  and  the  sympathy  will  be  deeper  and  more  general,  untQ  the  "  law  "  is 
indignantly  and  for  ever  swept  from  the  statute  book. 

Those  who  aid  the  fugitive,  and  defend  the  free  people  of  color  from  being  kid- 
napped, act  on  conscientious,  and  many  of  them  from  Christian  principles.  The 
administration  of  the  iniquitous  and  unconstitutional  law  is  therefore  a  matter  of 
persecution.  In  every  way  in  which  it  can  be  viewed,  it  is  a  disgrace  to  the  nation, 
an  act  of  extreme  cruelty,  and  can  be  -viewed  as  an  experiment  on  the  part  of 
the  Slave  Power  to  see  how  much  the  Free  States  will  bear,  with  reference  to 
future  experiments  upon  their  rights  and  feelings. 

LEWIS  TAPPAN,  Cor.  Sec. 


CIVIL  LIBERTY  OUTRAGED. 


The  First  Fruits  of  the  Compromise  ! 

The  First  United  States  Official  Slave-catcher  in 
New- York  ! 

The  First  Outrage  upon  Civil  Liberty  ox  Free  Soil, 
IN  A  Free  State  ! 

Let  the  following  plain  statement  of  facts  be  read  by  every  Ameri- 
,  can  citizen,  and  the  public  judgment  be  passed  upon  the  authors*  of 
the  law  under  which  they  took  p'ace,  and  their  aiders,  abettors,  and 
^  approvers. 

On  the  26th  day  of  September  last,  one  Thomas  J.  Clare  came  to 
-    the  city  of  New- York  from  Baltimore,  with  a  power  of  attorney,  pur- 
,    porting  to  be  executed  by  one  Mary  Brown — not  by  her  signature, 
but  by  her  mark — authorizing  him  to  take  and  carry  to  Baltimore  a 
'    man  represented  to  be  her  slave.     Bringing  with  him  a  copy  of  the 
^    Fugitive  Slave  Law,  just  passed  by  Congress,  as  one  of  the  heralded 
'•    measures  of  peace  in  which  that  body  has  been  engaged  for  the  last 
-^     ten  months,  certified  to  be  authentic  by  Daniel  Webster,  Secretary 
v3^    of  State,  Clare  appeared  before  Alexander  Gardiner,  Clerk  of  the 
Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern  District  of  New- 
York,  and  Commissioner  under  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  in  virtue 
of  this  law,  constituted  a  slave-catcher,  and  made  an  affidavit  that 
George  Hamlet,  a  mulatto  man,  about  30  years  of  age,  who  has 
resided  in  the  neighborhood  of  this  city  for  the  last  two  or  three  years, 
and  who  has  a  wife  and  children  there,  was  the  slave  of  Mrs.  Brown, 
1 


\ 


4  HISTORY    AND   UNCONSTITUTIONALITY 

and  that  he  escaped  from  her  in  Baltimore  about  the  year  1848,  and 
asked  for  a  warrant  to  arrest  him. 

Commissioner  Gardiner,  entering  promptly  upon  the  execution  of 
his  new  office  under  the  \a.vf — one  of  the  provisions  of  which  gives  the 
Commissioner  ten  dollars,  provided  he  decides  tht;  man  is  a  slave,  but 
only  five  dollars  in  case  he  decides  him  to  be  a  free  man — forthwith 
prepared  the  necessary  papers,  issued  the  demanded  warrant,  and 
placed  it  in  the  hands  of  the  United  States  Marshal,  who,  tlirough 
one  of  his  deputies,  arrested  Hamlet,  while  pursuing  his  ordinary 
bu-iness  as  porter  in  the  store  of  Tilton  &  Maloney,  58  Water  street, 
New- York  city — having  formerly  lived  with  Mr,  Silas  Wood,  in  this 
city — and  brought  him,  according  to  the  directions  of  the  wan-ant,  before 
Mr.  G-ardiner.  He  was  then  taken  into  a  retired  room  in  the  second 
story  of  the  old  City  Hall,  and  the  Commissioner,  without  any  notice 
to  any  acquaintance  of  the  prisoner,  without  assigning  him  any  coun- 
sel, or  giving  him  ^  moment's  opportunity  to  send  for  assistance,  pro- 
ceeded with  hot  haste,  ex-parte,  to  take  the  testimony  of  Clare,  the 
son-in-law  of  the  alleged  claimant,  and  young  Gustavus  Brown,  her 
son,  in  proof  that  the  prisoner  was  her  slave. 

By  accident,  a  gentleman  who  has  some  sympathy  for  the  dis- 
tressed, heard  what  was  going  on,  and  sent  for  a  gentleman  of  the 
New- York  bar  to  appear  as  counsel  for  the  prisoner,  who  arrived  only 
in  time  to  elicit,  by  a  cross-examination  of  the  witnesses,  the  admission 
that  at  the  time  of  the  alleged  escape  of  Hamlet,  he  was  not  in  the 
employment  of  Mrs.  Brown,  but  had  for  some  time  been  hired  out  as 
servant  in  a  Baltimore  Shot  Company,  for  whom  Clare  was  clerk. 
Hamlet  insisted  that  his  mother  was  a  free  woman,  and  that  he  was  a 
free  man,  and  denied  that  he  was  a  slave.  But  the  law  proliibited 
liis  testimony  from  being  taken,  and  Commissioner  Gardiner,  upon  the 
testimony  of  the  two  family  witnesses,  the  son-in-law  and  son  of  the 
alleged  owner — who  by  her  mark  upon  the  power  of  attorney,  it  ap- 
pears, cannot  wi-ite  her  name,  and  whose  name  was  evidently  used  in 
the  matter  for  the  benefit  of  Clare  and  young  Brown — decided  tlmt 
the  prisoner  was  the  slave  of  the  claimant,  and  doomed  him  to  per- 
petual bondage,  by  delivering  him  up  to  Clare  as  his  property. 

The  demand  was  then  made  that  the  Marshal  of  the  United 
States,  at  the  expense  of  the  United  States,  take  the  prisoner  to  Balti- 
more. The  law  sanctions  the  demand,  and  a  wai-rant  for  that  purpose 
was  immediately  issued,  and  this  man,  torn  from  his  wife  and  children 


/ 


OF  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  BILL.  O 

and  doomed  to  perpetual  bondage,  not  hj  the  verdict  of  a  jury,  but  by 
the  fiat  of  a  mere  clerk,  whom  this  law  has  constituted  slave-catcher 
for  Southern  masters,  and  upon  the  testimony  of  the  parties  in  inter- 
est, was  then  taken  into  custody  by  deputy  Benjamin  H.  Tallmadge, 
(who  is  son  of  Henry  F.  Tallmadge,  U.  S.  Marshal,)  hand-cuffed, 
and  with  his  limbs  thus  cramped  in  irons,  forced  into  a  carriage  pre- 
pared and  standing  at  the  court-house  door.  With  two  men  on  the 
driver's  seat  and  three  inside  the  carriage,  he  was  hurried  to  the 
steamboat  and  taken  to  Baltimore,  and  lodged  in  the  slave  prison  of 
the  successor  of  Hope  H.  Slatter,  a  well-known  hell  upon  earth,  there 
to  remain  till  a  favorable  bargain  can  be  made  for  his  sale  and  ship- 
ment to  a  Southern  market.  The  expenses,  amounting  to  between 
§70  and  $80,  have  been  paid  by  the  United  States.  His  wife  and 
two  children,  who  had  no  knowledge  of  his  doom  till  he  was  gone, 
remain  among  us,  deprived  even  of  the  mournful  consolation  of  bid- 
ding farewell  to  their  husband  and  father,  who  has  been  torn  from 
them  for  no  crime,  under  the  sanction  of  and  in  conformity  to  a  law 
made  by  the  representatives  of  the  people  of  these  United  States. 

Young  Tallmadge  lost  no  time,  after  seeing  that  Hamlet  was  safely 
lodged  in  the  slave  prison  at  Baltimore,  in  communicating  the  news 
to  his  fetlier's  office.  By  a  telegraphic  dispatch  from  Baltimore  he 
sent  intelligence  that  the  victim  whom  he  had  volunteered  to  take  in 
chains  to  the  dungeon  in  that  city,  was  securely  incarcerated.  This 
young  man,  we  regret  to  say,  is  the  grandson  of  Colonel  Benjamin 
Tallmadge  of  the  revolutionary  army,  and  once  an  Aid  of  General 
"Wasliington ! 

James  Hamlet  is  a  highly  esteemed  young  man.  In  the  language 
of  the  subservient  Journal  of  Commerce,  he  is  "  a  steady,  correct, 
and  upright  man,"  "  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church,"  and  "  can  be 
redeemed  for  $800."  The  Jom-nal  says  the  decree  was  according  to 
law  and  the  Constitution.  The  lattes  asseetiox  is  false,  as  the 
act  tramples  upon  the  Constitution,  as  well  as  upon  the  law  of  God. 
The  caitiff  editor  sneers  at  a  "  higher  law,"  and  exults  in  the  prostration 
of  civU.  liberty,  while  he,  with  an  affectation  of  benevolence,  soUcits 
money  to  purchase  Hamlet,  that  he  may  be  restored  to  his  family. 
It  is  said  that  a  silver  pitcher  is  in  preparation  to  be  presented  to  the 
editor  by  slaveholders,  in  testimony  of  their  appreciation  of  his  ser- 
vices on  behalf  of  the  institution  the  past  year. 

This  "  law,"  called  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  is  said  to  have  been 


6  HISTORY   AND  UNCOXSTITUTIOXALITT 

drafted  by  Mr.  Mason,  Senator  from  Virginia.  It  is  the  act  of  which 
Daniel  Webster  said,  "  I  propose  to  support  that  bill  with  all  proper 
authority  and  provisions  in  it,  to  the  fullest  extent — to  the  fullest 
extent ;"  and  for  which  he  has  received  the  cordial  ajDprobation  of 
Moses  Stuart,  and  a  number  of  manufacturers,  recreant  preachers,  and 
venal  politicians.  Tliis  law  is  an  audacious  violation  of  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  Civil  Liberty,  and  of  the  Constitution  of  the  country.  "  For 
my  own  part,"  says  Judge  Jay,  "  I  regard  the  bill  before  the  Senate 
as  a  most  gross  usui-pation  of  power  in  Congress  ;  a  plain,  palpable 
violation  of  the  Constitution,  an  outrage  on  the  religious  and  benevo- 
lent sensibilities  of  the  community,  and  a  disgrace  to  our  national 
character."    Here  is  the  bill : — 

AN    ACT 

To  Amend,  and  Supplementary  to  the  Act,  entitled,  "  An 
Act  respecting  Fugitives  from  justice,  and  persons  escap- 
ing FROM  the  service  OF  THEIR  MASTERS,"  APPROVED  FEBRU- 
ARY 12,  1793. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  the  persons 
who  have  been,  or  may  hereafter  be,  appointed  commissioners,  in  vu'tue 
of  any  act  of  Congress,  by  the  circuit  courts  of  the  United  States,  and 
who,  in  consequence  of  such  appointment,  are  authorized  to  exercise 
the  powers  that  any  justice  of  the  peace  or  other  magistrate  of  any  of 
the  United  States  may  exercise  in  respect  to  offenders  for  any  crime 
or  offence  against  the  United  States,  by  arresting,  imprisoning,  or 
bailing  the  same  under  and  by  virtue  of  the  thirty-third  section  of  the 
act  of  the  twenty-fourth  of  September,  seventeen  hundred  and  eighty- 
nine,  entitled  "  An  act  to  establish  the  judicial  courts  of  the  United 
States,"  shall  be,  and  are  hereby  anthorized  and  required  to  exercise 
and  discharge  all  the  powers  and  duties  conferred  by  this  act. 

Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  superior  court  of  each 
organized  territory  of  the  United  States  shall  have  the  same  power 
to  appoint  commissioners  to  take  acknowledgments  of  bail  and  affi- 
davit, and  to  take  depositions  of  witnesses  in  civil  causes,  which  is 
now  possessed  by  the  circuit  courts  of  the  United  States ;  and  all 
commissioners  who  shall  hereafter  be  appointed  for  such  purposes  by 
the  superior  court  of  any  organized  territory  of  the  United  States  shall 
possess  all  the  powers  and  exercise  all  the  duties  confen-ed  by  law 
upon  the  commissioners  appointed  by  the  circuit  courts  of  the  United 
States  for  similar  purposes,  and  shall  moreover  exercise  and  discharge 
all  the  powers  and  duties  conferred  by  this  act. 

Sec.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted",  Ih?^  the  circuit  courts  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  superior  courts  of  each  organized  territoiy  of 
the  United  States,  shall  from  time  to  tune  enlarge  tlie  number  of 


OF  TUE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  BILL.  7 

commissioners,  with  a  view  to  afford  reasonable  facilities  to  reclaim 
fugitives  from  labor,  and  to  the  prompt  discharge  of  the  duties  imposed 
by  this  act. 

Sec.  4.  And  be  it  furtlier  enacted,  That  the  commissioners  above 
named  shall  have  concurrent  jurisdiction  with  the  judges  of  the  circuit 
and  district  courts  of  the  United  States,  in  their  respective  circuits  and 
districts  within  the  several  States,  and  the  judges  of  the  superior 
courts  of  tlie  Territories,  severally  and  collectively,  in  term  time  and 
vacation ;  and  shall  grant  certificates  to  such  claimants,  upon  satisfoc- 
tory  proof  being  made,  with  autliority  to  take  and  remove  such  fugi- 
tives from  service  or  labor,  under  the  restrictions  herein  contained,  to 
the  State  or  territory  from  which  such  persons  may  have  escaped  or 
fled. 

Sec.  5.  Andhe  It  further  enacterl.  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  all 
marshals  and  deputy  marslials  to  obey  and  execute  all  warrants  and 
precepts  issued  under  the  provisions  of  this  act,  when  to  them  directed  ; 
and  should  any  marshal  or  deputy  marshal  refuse  to  receive  such 
wan"ant  or  other  process,  when  tendered,  or  to  use  all  proper  means 
diligently  to  execute  the  same,  he  shall,  on  conviction  thereof,  be 
fined  in  the  sum  of  one  tliousand  dollars  to  the  use  of  such  claimant, 
on  the  motion  of  such  claimant,  by  the  circuit  or  district  court  for  the 
district  of  such  marshal ;  and  after  arrest  of  such  fugitive  by  such  mar- 
shal or  his  deputy,  or  whilst  at  any  time  in  his  custody,  under  the 
provisions  of  this  act,  should  such  fugitive  escape,  whether  with  or 
without  the  assent  of  such  marshal  or  his  deputy,  such  marshal  shall 
be  liable,  on  his  official  bond,  to  be  prosecuted,  for  the  benefit  of  such 
claimant  for  the  full  value  of  the  service  or  labor  of  said  fugitive  in 
the  State,  Territory,  or  district  whence  he  escaped;  and  the  better  to 
enable  the  said  commissioners,  when  thus  appointed,  to  execute  their 
duties  faithfully  and  efficiently,  in  confurmity  with  the  requirements 
of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  and  of  this  act,  they  are  hereby 
authorized  and  empowered,  within  their  coimties  respectively,  to 
appoint  in  writmg  under  their  hands,  any  one  or  more  suitable  per- 
sons, from  time  to  time,  to  execute  all  such  warrants  and  other  process 
as  may  be  issued  by  them  m  the  lawful  performance  of  their  respect- 
ive duties  ;  with  an  authority  to  such  commissioners,  or  the  persons  to 
be  appointed  by  them,  to  execute  process  as  aforesaid,  to  summon 
and  call  to  tlieir  aid  the  bystanders,  or />o.s se  coimtatus  of  the  proper 
county,  when  necessary  to  insure  a  faithful  observance  of  the  clause 
of  the  constitution  referred  to,  in  conformity  with  the  provisions  of  this 
act :  and  all  good  citizens  are  hereby  commanded  to  aid  and  assist  in 
the  prompt  and  efficient  execution  of  this  law,  whenever  their  services 
may  be  required,  as  aforesaid,  for  tliat  purpose ;  and  said  warrants 
shall  run  and  be  executed  by  said  officers  anywhere  in  the  State 
within  which  they  are  issued. 

Sec.  6.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  when  a  person  held  to  ser- 
vice or  labor  in  any  State  or  Territory  of  tlie  United  States  has  here- 
tofore or  shall  hereafter  escape  into  another  State  or  Territory  of 
the  United  States,  the  person  or  persons  to  whom  such  service  or 


8  HISTORY   AND    UXCONSTITUTIONALITY 

labor  may  be  due,  or  his,  her,  or  thek  agent  or  attorney,  duly  author- 
ized, by  power  of  attorney,  in  writing,  acknowledged  and  certified 
under  the  seal  of  some  legal  office  or  court  of  the  State  or  Territory 
in  which  the  same  may  be  executed,  may  pursue  and  reclaim  such 
fugitive  person,  either  by  procuring  a  warrant  from  some  one  of  the 
courts,  judges,  or  commissioners  aforesaid,  of  the  proper  circuit,  dis- 
trict or  county,  for  the  apprehension  of  such  fugitive  from  service  or 
labor,  or  by  seizing  and  arrestinfr  such  fugitive,  where  the  same  can  be 
done  without  process,  and  by  taking  and  causing  such  person  to  be  taken 
forthwith  before  such  com-t,  judge  or  commissioner,  whose  duty  it  shall 
be  to  hear  and  determine  the  case  of  such  claimant  in  a  summary 
manner;  and  upon  satisfactory  proof  being  made,  by  deposition  or 
affidavit,  in  writing,  to  he  taken  and  Certified  by  such  court,  judge,  or 
commissioner,  or  by  other  satisfactory  testimony,  duly  taken  and 
certified  by  some  court,  magistrate,  justice  of  the  peace,  or  other  legal 
officer  authorized  to  administer  an  oath  and  take  depositions  under 
the  laws  of  the  State  or  Territory  from  which  such  person  owing 
service  or  labor  may  have  escaped,  with  a  certificate  of  such  magis- 
tracy or  other  authority,  as  aforesaid,  with  the  seal  of  the  proper  cmrt 
or  officer  thereto  attached,  which  seal  shall  be  sufficient  to  establish 
the  competency  of  the  proof,  and  with  proof,  also  by  affidavit,  of  the 
identity  of  the  person  whose  service  or  labor  is  claimed  to  be  due  as 
aforesaid,  thai  the  person  so  an-ested  does  in  fact  owe  service  or  labor 
to  the  person  or  persons  claiming  him  or  her,  in  the  State  or  T>'rritory 
fnnn  wnich  such  fugi  ive  may  have  escaped  as  aforesaid,  and  that  said 
person  escaped,  to  make  out  and  deliver  to  such  claimant,  his  or  her 
agent  or  attorney,  a  certificate  setting  forth  the  substantial  facts  as  to 
the  service  or  labor  due  from  such  fugitive  to  the  claimant,  and 
of  his  or  her  escape  from  the  State  or  Territory  in  which  such  service 
or  labor  wa^  due  to  the  State  or  Territory  in  which  he  or  she  was 
arrested,  v.'ith  authority  to  such  claimant,  or  his  or  her  agent  or  attorney, 
to  use  such  reasonable  force  and  restraint  as  may  be  necessary  under 
the  circumstances  of  the  case,  to  take  and  remove  such  fugitive  per- 
son back  to  the  State  or  Territory  from  whence  he  or  she  may  have 
escaped  as  aforesaid.  In  no  trial  or  hearing  under  this  act  shall  the 
testimony  of  si;ch  alleged  fugitive  be  admitted  in  evidence ;  and  the 
certificates  in  this  and  the  first  sectio)i  mentioned  shall  be  conclusive 
of  the  right  of  the  person  or  i^ersons  in  whose  favor  granted  to  remove 
such  fugitive  to  the  State  or  Territory  from  which  he  escaped,  and  shall 
prevent  all  molestation  of  said  person  or  persons  by  any  process  issued 
by  any  court,  judge,  magistrate,  or  other  person  whomsoever. 

Sh.c.  7.  And  be  it  furf her  enacted.  That  any  person  who  shall  know- 
ingly and  willingly  obstruct,  hinder,  or  prevent  such  clairaan-,  his 
agent  or  attorney,  or  any  person  or  persons  lawfully  assisting  him, 
her,  or  them,  i)  o  n  arresting  such  a  fugitive  from  service  or  labor, 
either  with  or  wiihout  process  as  aforesaid ;  or  shall  rescue,  or  attempt 
to  rescue  such  fugitive  from  service  or  labor,  from  the  custody  of 
such  c-aimant,  his  or  her  agent  or  attorney  or  other  person  or  persons 
lawfully  assisting  as  aforesaid,  when  so  arrested,  pursuant  to  the  an- 


OF  THE  rrCrlTIYE  SLATE  BILL.  9 

thnritv  herein  given  and  declared  ;  or  shall  aid,  abet,  or  assist  such 
person,  so  owing  service  or  labor  as  aforesaid,  directly  or  indirectly,  to 
escape  from  Mich  claimant,  his  agent  or  attorney,  or  other  person  or 
persons,  legally  authorized  as  afore.-aid  ;  or  shall  harbor  or  conceal 
such  fugitive,  so  as  to  prevent  the  discover^-  and  arrest  of  such  person, 
after  notice  or  knowledge  of  the  foct  that  such  person  was  a  fugitive 
from  service  or  labor  as  aforesaid,  shall,  for  either  of  said  ofiences,  be 
subject  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  one  thousand  dollars,  and  imprisonment 
not  exceeding  six  months,  by  indictment  and  conviction  before  the 
district  court  of  the  United' States  for  the  district  in  which  such  of- 
fence may  have  been  committed,  or  before  the  proper  court  of  crimi- 
nal jurisdiction,  if  committed  within  any  one  of  the  organized  Terri- 
tories of  the  United  States  ;  and  shaU  moreover  forfeit  and  pay,  by 
wav  of  civil  damages  to  the  party  injm-ed  by  such  illegal  conduct,  the 
sum  of  one  thousand  dollars  for  each  fugitive  so  lost  as  aforesaid,  to 
be  recovered  by  action  of  debt  in  any  of  the  district  or  territorial 
courts  aforesaid^ within  whose  jurisdiction  the  said  offence  may  have 
been  committed. 

Sec.  8.  A)id  he  it  farther  enacted,  That  the  marshals,  their  deputies, 
and  the  clerks  of  the  said  district  and  ten-itorial  courts,  shall  be  paid 
fur  their  services  the  like  fees  as  may  be  allowed  to  them  for  similar 
services  ui  other  cases  ;  and  where  such  services  are  rendered  exclu- 
sively in  the  anest,  custody,  and  deliveiy  of  the  fugitive  to  the  claim- 
ant, his  or  her  agent  or  attorney,  or  where  such  supposed  fugitive  may 
be  discharged  out  of  custody  for  the  want  of  sufficient  proof  as 
aforesaid,  then  such  fees  are  to  be  paid  in  the  whole  by  such  claim- 
ant, liis  agent  or  attorney  ;  and  in  all  cases  where  the  proceedings 
are  before  a  commissioner,  he  shall  be  entitled  to  a  fee  of  ten  dollars 
ft  full  for  his  services  in  each  case,  upon  the  d-  livery  of  the  said  cer- 
tificate to  the  claimant,  his  or  her  agent  or  attorney  ;  or  a  fee  of  five 
dollars  in  cases  where  the  proof  shall  not,  in  the  opinion  of  such  comniis- 
siuner,  warrant  such  certificate  and  delivery,  inclusive  of  all  ser\nces 
incident  to  such  arrest  and  examination,  to  be  paid  in  either  case,  by 
the  claimant,  his  or  her  agent  or  attorney.  The  person  or  persons 
authorized  to  execute  the  process  to  be  issued  by  such  commissioners 
for  the  an-est  and  detention  of  fugitives  from  service  or  labor  as  afore- 
said, shall  also  be  entitled  t.  a  fee  of  five  dollars  each  for  each  per- 
son he  or  they  may  arrest  and  take  before  any  such  commissioner  as 
aforesaid  at  the  instance  and  request  of  such  claimant,  with  such  other 
fees  as  may  be  deemed  reasonable  by  such  commissioner  for  such 
other  additional  services  as  may  be  necessarily  performed  by  him  or 
them :  such  as  attending  to  the*^  examination,  keeping  the  fugitive  in 
custody,  and  providing  him  vdth  food  and  lodging  during  his  detention, 
and  until  the  final  determination  of  such  commi.-sioner  ;  and  in  general 
for  perfomiing  such  other  duties  as  may  be  required  by  such  claimant, 
his  or  her  attorney  or  agent,  or  commissioner  in  the  premises  ;  such 
fees  to  be  made  up  in  conformity  with  the  fees  usually  charged  by 
the  officers  of  the  courts  of  justice  within  the  proper  district  or  county, 
as  near  as  mav  be  practicable,  and  paid  by  such  claimants,  their  agents 
1* 


10  HISTORY   AND   UNCONSTITUTIOXALITY 

or  attorneys,  whether  such  supposed  fugitive  from  service  or  labor 
be  ordered  to  be  delivered  to  such  claimants  by  the  final  determioa- 
tion  of  such  commissioners  or  not. 

Sec.  9.  And  he  it  further  enacted,  That  upon  affidavit  made  by 
the  claimant  of  sucli  fugitive,  his  agent  or  attorney,  after  such  certiti- 
cate  has  been  issued,  that  he  has  reason  to  apprehend  that  such  fugi- 
tive will  be  rescued  by  force  from  his  or  theh  possession  before  he 
can  be  taken  beyond  the  limits  of  the  State  in  wliich  the  arrest  is 
made,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  officer  making  the  arrest  to  retain 
such  fugitive  in  his  custody,  and  to  remove  him  to  the  State  whence 
he  fled,  and  there  to  deliver  him  to  said  claimant,  his  agent  or  attor- 
ney. And  to  this  end  the  officer  aforesaid  is  hereby  authorized  and 
required  to  employ  so  many  persons  as  he  may  deem  necessary,  to 
overcome  such  force,  and  to  retain  them  in  his  service  so  long  as  cir- 
cumstances may  require  ;  the  said  officer  and  his  assistants,  v.'hile  so 
employed,  to  receive  the  same  compensation,  and  to  be  allowed  the 
same  expenses  as  are  now  allowed  by  law  for  the  transportation  of 
criminals,  to  be  certified  by  the  judge  of  tlie  district  within  which 
the  arrest  is  made,  and  paid  out  of  the  treasury  of  the  United  States. 

Sec.  10.  And  be  it  farther  enacted,  That  when  any  person  held  to 
service  or  labor  in  any  State  or  Territory,  or  in  the  District  of  Col- 
umbia, shall  escape  therefrom,  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or 
labor  shall  be  due,  his,  her,  or  theh  agent  or  attorney  may  apply  to 
any  court  of  record  therein,  or  judge  thereof,  in  vacation,  and  make 
satisfactory  proof  to  such  court,  or  judge,  in  vacation,  of  the  escape 
aforesaid,  and  that  the  person  escaping  owed  service  or  labor  to  such 
party.  Whereupon  the  court  shall  cause  a  record  to  be  made  of  the 
matters  so  proved,  and  also  a  general  description  of  the  person  so 
escaping,  with  such  convenient  certainty  as  may  be  ;  and  atranscri^ 
of  such  record  authenticated  by  the  attestation  of  the  clerk,  and  of 
the  seal  of  the  said  court,  being  produced  in  any  other  State,  Territory, 
or  District  in  which  the  person  so  escaping  may  be  found,  and  being 
exhibited  to  any  judge,  commissioner,  or  other  officer,  authorized  by 
the  law  of  the  United  States  to  cause  persons  escaping  from  service 
or  labor  to  be  delivered  up,  shall  be  held  aiid  taken  to  be  full  and 
conclusive  evidence  of  the  fact  of  escape,  and  that  the  service  or  labor 
of  the  person  escaping  is  due  to  the  party  in  such  record  mentioned. 
And  upon  the  production  by  tlie  said  party  of  other  and  further  evi- 
dence, if  necessary,  either  oral  or  by  affidavit,  in  addition  to  what  is  con- 
tained in  the  said  record  of  the  identity  of  the  person  escaping,  he  or 
she  shall  be  delivered  up  to  the  claimant.  And  the  said  court,  com- 
missioner, judge  or  other  person  authorized  by  tiiis  act  to  grant  cer- 
tificates to  claimants  of  fugitives,  shall,  upon  the  production  of  the 
record  and  other  evidences  aforesaid,  grant  to  such  claimant  a  cer- 
tificate of  his  right  to  take  any  such  person  identified  and  proved  to 
be  owing  service  or  labor  as  aforesaid,  which  certificate  shall  author- 
ize such  claimant  to  seize  or  arrest  and  transport  such  person  to  the 
State  or  Territory  from  which  he  escaped :  Provided,  That  nothing 
herein  contained  shall  be  construed  as  requiring  the  production  of  a 


OF  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  BILL.  11 

transcript  of  such  record  as  evidence  as  aforesaid ;  but  in  its  absence, 
the  claim  sliall  be  heard  and  determined  upon  other  satisfactory  proofs 
competent  in  law. 

HOWELL  COBB, 

Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

WILLIAM  R.  KING, 

Fresident  of  the  Senate,  pro  tempore. 

Approved  September  18,  1850. 

MILLARD  FILLMORE. 

SYNOPSIS  OF  THE  BILL. 

1.  United  States  Commissioners  who  have  been,  or  may  hereafter 
be,  appointed  by  the  Circuit  Courts  of  the  United  States,  are  author- 
ized and  required  to  exercise  the  powers  conferred  by  this  act. 

3.  The  Superior  Court  of  each  Territory  shall  have  power  to  appoint 
similar  commissioners,  with  the  same  authority  as  that  possessed  by 
the  commissioners  appointed  by  the  United  States  Circuit  Courts. 

3.  The  Circuit  Courts  of  the  U.  S.  and  the  Superior  Courts  of  the 
Territories  shall  increase  the  number  of  commissioners  from  time  to 
time,  as  their  services  may  be  needed. 

4.  Such  commissioners  shall  possess  concurrent  jurisdiction,  in  rela- 
tion to  %igitives,  with  the  Judges  of  the  Cu-cuit  and  District  Courts  of 
the  U.  S.,  and  the  Superior  Courts  of  the  Territories,  in  term  time, 
and  vacation, 

5.  Marshals  and  Deputies  are  required  to  execute  aU  warrants  and 
precepts,  or  other  processes  for  the  arrest  and  detention  of  fugitives, 
imder  penalty  of  a  fine  of  §1,000  for  the  use  of  the  claimant  of  such 
fugitive ;  and  in  case  of  the  escape  of  a  fugitive  from  the  custody  of 
a  marshcal,  wliether  with  or  without  his  knowledge  and  connivance, 
said  marshal  is  to  be  liable  to  a  prosecution  for  the  full  value  of  the 
said  fugitive. 

The  commissioners  have  also  powers  to  appoint  suitable  per- 
sons from  time  to  time,  to  execute  all  warrants  and  processes  need- 
ful for  the  arrest  and  detention  of  fugitives,  with  power  to  call  on 
the  posse  comitatus,  or  by-standers,  for  assistance,  if  needed ;  and  all 
good  citizens  are  commanded  to  aid  and  assist  in  the  execution  of  the 
law,  when  their  services  shall  be  required. 

6.  The  owner,  or  the  attorney  of  any  owner,  of  any  fugitive  slave, 
is  authorized  to  seize  such  fugitive,  with  or  without  warrant  or  prq-f 


12  HISTORY    A^•D   UInCOXSTITUTIONALITT 

cess,  and  take  him  before  some  one  of  the  court?,  judges,  or  com- 
missioners aforesaid,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  determine  the  case  in 
a  summary  manner ;  and  on  proof,  by  deposition  or  affidavit,  or  other 
satisfactory  testimony,  duly  certified,  of  the  escape  and  identity  of 
said  fugitive,  and  of  the  right  of  said  claimant  to  the  service  of  said 
fugitiv.e,  the  commissioner  shall  make  out  and  deliver  to  said  claim- 
ant, a  certificate,  lohich  shall  be  conclusive,  and  prevent  all  molesta- 
tion of  the  clalmaytt  by  any  process  issued  by  any  couirt,  judge,  magis- 
trate or  other  persoii  whomsoever— setting  forth  the  substantial  facts  in 
the  case,  with  antlwrity  to  use  necessary  force  and  restraint  to  take  and 
remove  such  fugitive  to  the  State  or  Territory  from  which  he  has  es- 
caped.    The  testimony  of  the  fugitive  is  in  no  case  to  be  admitted. 

1.  Any  person  who  shall  knowingly  hinder  the  arrest  of  a  fugitive, 
or  attempt  to  rescue  him  after  arrest,  or  assist  such  fugitive,  directly 
or  indirectly,  to  escape,  or  harbor  or  conceal  liim  after  notice  or 
knowledge  of  the  fact  that  he  was  a  fugitive,  shall  be  liable  to  a  fine 
of  $1,000  and  six  months'  imprisonment,  by  conviction  before  the 
proper  District  or  Territorial  courts,  and  to  a  suit  for  damages  of 
$1,000  for  each  fugitive  lost  to  his  owner  by  said  obstruction  or  rescue, 
the  same  to  be  recovered  by  action  of  debt  in  any  of  the  courts 
aforesaid. 

8.  The  marshals,  deputies  and  clerks  shall  receive  the  usual  com- 
pensation in  such  cases  for  their  services ;  when  the  proceecungs  are 
before  a  commissioner,  he  is  entitled  to  a  fee  of  ten  dollars  upon  the 
delivery  of  the  said  certificate  to  the  claimant ;  or  to  a  fee  of  five  dollars 
if  the  proof  is  deemed  insufficient :  the  persons  authorized  to  execute 
the  process  for  the  arrest  and  detention  of  such  fugitive,  shall  receive 
a  fee  of  five  dollars,  with  other  fees  which  may  be  deemed  reasonable 
for  additional  services:  all  which  fees  are  to  be  paid  by  such 
claimants. 

9.  Upon  affidavit  by  the  claimant  that  he  apprehends  a  rescue^ 
after  the  delivery  of  a  fugitive  to  his  master,  the  officer  who  efiected 
the  arrest  may  be  required  to  take  the  slave  to  the  place  from  whence 
he  escaped,  and  employ  as  many  persons  as  may  be  necessaiy  to 
prevent  a  rescue,  until  he  can  be  delivered  to  his  master  in  the  State 
from  which  he  fled.  The  expen>es  of  assistance  and  transportation, 
the  same  as  those  now  allowed  for  criminals,  are  to  be  paid  out  of  the 
U.  S.  Treasury. 

10.  On  the  escape  of  a  slave,  the  master  or  his  attorney  may  make 


OF  THE    rrCITIVE  SLAVE  BILL.  ]  3 

satisfactory  proof  to  any  Court  of  Record,  or  Judge  thereof  in  vaca- 
tion, of  Lis  ownersliip  of  an  escaped  slave,  -whereupon  the  court  are 
required  to  issue  an  authenticated  copy  of  said  testimony,  with  a 
description  of  the  person  of  the  fugitive  loith  stick  convenient  cer- 
tainty as  may  he,  which  being  exhibited  to  any  judge,  commissioner, 
or  other  officer  authorized  to  act,  shall  be  held  as  conclusive  evidence 
of  the  escape  of  said  slave,  and  of  the  claimant's  right  to  said  fugitive. 
Upon  the  production  of  other  evidence,  if  necessaiy,  either  oral  or  by 
affidavit,  a  certificate  shall  be  granted  which  shall  authorize  the 
claimant  to  arrest  and  transport  such  person  into  the  State  or  Territory 
whence  he  may  have  escaped.  In  the  absence  of  said  copy  of  said 
testimony,  the  claim  shall  be  determined  upon  other  proofs  "  compe- 
tent in  law." 

THB  V7A.T  TS  WAS  DONE. 

It  is  curious  to  know  the  modus  operandi,  and  it  should  be  kept  in 
everlasting  remembrance.  The  chief  plotters — the  slave-holding 
Speaker,  Cobb,  of  Georgia,  and  his  confederates  on  the  floor  of  the 
House — and  the  subservient,  pliaut,  dough  faced  tools  of  the  Xorth, 
mcludiug  those  who  voted  for  the  Bill,  and  those  who  dodged  the 
question,  will  have  their  names  registered  here  and  elsewhere  for 
the  eyes  of  tlieir  constituents,  their  countrymen,  the  world,  and  pos- 
terity. May  the  indignant  frown  of  a  virtuous  people  drive  them 
from  posts  of  influence,  and  doom  them  to  political  death,  as  they 
have  doomed  themselves  to  perpetual  shame  and  dishonor. 

The  following  is  the  Senate  vote  on  the  engrossment  of  the 
bill:- 

Teas — ^lessrs.  Atcliison,  Badger,  Barnwell,  Bell,  Berrien.  Butler, 
Davis,  of  Mississippi,  Dawson,  Dodge,  of  lovra,  Downs,  Foote,  Houston, 
Hunter,  Jones,  King,  Mangum,  Mason,  Pierce,  Rusk,  Sebasrian, 
Soule,  Spruance,  Sturgeon,  Turney,  Undei-wood,  Wales,  Yulee — 27. 

N"ays — Messrs.  Baldwin,  Bradbury,  Cha*e,  Cooper,  Davis,  of  Mass., 
Davton.  Dodge,  of  Wisconsra,  Greene,  Smith,  Upham,  Walker,  and 
Winthrop— f2. 

Absent,  or  Not  Voting— IsLiiisxB.  Benton,  Borland,  Biight,  Clarke, 
Clay,  Cass,  Clemens.  Dickinson,  Douglas,  Ewing,  Felch,  Hale,  Ham- 
lin, Miller,  Morton,  Norris,  Phelus,  Pratt,  Seward,  Shields,  \yhit- 
00  mb — •-'  1 . 

I        Yeas  from  the  Free  States — Messrs,  A,  C.  Dodge  and    i 
Jones,  of  Iowa.  I 


14  HISTORY  AKD  UNCONSTITUTIOXALITY 

On  the  final  passage,  the  Yeas  and  Nays  were  not  called,  the 
fate  of  the  bill  being  decided  by  the  preceding  vote ;  but  that  emi  - 
nently  national  statesman,  Hon.  Daniel  S.  Dickinson,  made  a  few 
remarks  in  favor  of  the  bill,  and  it  passed  without  further  division, 
Mr.  Seward  was  absent  from  the  city,  unwell.  Mr.  Hale  was,  we  be- 
lieve, with  his  fiiniily,  for  a  few  days,  in  New-Hampshire  ;  but  most  of 
the  twenty-one  absentees  were  only  indisposed  to  vote. 

The  bill  was  taken  up  in  the  House,  September  12th,  and  forced 
through,  says  the  editor  of  the  National  Era,  without  discussion,  con- 
sideration, or  any  opportunity  for  amendment.  The  bill  coming  up, 
JAMES  THOMPSON,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  recognized  by  the 
Speaker,  who,  it  is  believed,  fully  understood  the  views  of  that  recre- 
ant representative  of  a  Free  State.  He  addressed  the  House  in  sup- 
port of  the  bill,  and  closed  by  moving  the  previous  question.  Thad- 
deus  Stevens,  of  the  same  State,  strongly  appealed  to  his  colleague 
to  withraw  the  motion,  as  he  desired  to  reply  to  him.  Thompson 
would  consent  only  on  condition  that  Mr.  Stevens  would  renew  it; 
but  this  HE  NOBLY  KEFUSED  TO  DO.  Other  members  renewed  the  ap- 
peal, but  their  entreaties  were  in  vain.  Thompson  was  inexorable. 
Mr.  Crowell  moved  a  call  of  the  House.  It  was  refused,  and  the  de- 
mand for  the  previous  question  was  sustained  l—yeas  8*7,  nays  69. 
Mr.  Stevens  then  moved  to  lay  the  bill  on  the  table.  The  motion 
was  lost— yeas  07,  nays  113.  The  main  question  was  then  ordered 
to  be  put,  and  the  bill  was  ordered  to  a  third  reading— yeas  105, 
nays  73.  The  bill  was  read  a  third  time  by  its  title,  the  question 
being,  "  Shall  it  pass  r  Mr.  Thompson  moved  a  call  of  the  House, 
which  was  decided  in  the  negative,— yeas  73,  nays  100.  The  ques- 
tion, "  Shall  this  bill  pass  T  was  then  decided  in  the  affirmative — 
YEAS  109,  NAYS  75. 

The  following  is  a  classification  of  the  vote : — 

YEAS — calling  themselves  dehoceats  — 

I  Maine Thomas  J.  D.  Fuller,  of  Calais;  El- 
bridge  Gerry,  of  Waterford;  Nathl. 
S.  Littlefield,  of  Bridgeton. 

N'cw'Hampshire...  Harry  Hibbard,  of  Bath;  Charles  H. 
Peaslee,  of  Concord. 

iSfeio-  York Hirasi  Walden,  of  Waldensville. 

Kew- Jersey Isaac  Wildrick,  of  Blah'stown, 


OF  THE  FUGITIVE  SLATE  BILL. 


15 


TEAS CALLING  THEMSELVES  DEMOCRATS. Continued. 


Peimsylvania  .. .  Milo  M.  Dimmick,  of  Stroudsburg  ;  Jo 
lL4>-x,  of  Bedford ;  J.  X.  McLanahan 
of  Chambersburg ;  John  Robbins,  Jr., 
of  Philadelphia;  Thomas  Ross,  of 
Doylestown;  JAMES  THOMPSON, 
of  Erie. 

Ohio Moses  Hoaglaxd,  of  Miller sburg ;  John 

K.  Miller,  of  Mount  Vernon. 

MicMgaii AlexIinder  W.  Buell,  of  Detroit. 

Indiana Nathaniel   Aleertson,    of   Greenville ; 

William  J,  Brown,  of  Amity;  Cyrus 
L.  Dunham,  of  Salem ;  Willis  A. 
Gorman,  of  Bloomington ;  Jos.  E. 
McDonald,  of  Crawfordsville. 

Illinois William     H.     Bissell,    of    Belleville; 

Thomas  L.  Harris,  of  Petersburg; 
John  A.  McClernand,  William  A. 
Richardson,  of  Quincy;  Timothy  R. 
Young,  of  MarshaU. 

Iowa Shepherd  Leffler,  of  Burlington. 

California Edward  Gilbert. 


Maryland. Hamilton. 

Virginia Averett,  Bayly,  Beale,  E.  Edmundson,  McMullen, 

Holladay,  Meade,  MilLson,  Parker,  Powell,  Sed- 
don. 

North  Carolina..  Ashe,  Caldwell,  Venable. 

South  Carolina..  Burt,  Colcock,  McQueen,  Orr,  Vrallace,  Holmes, 
Woodward. 

Georgia Haralson,  Jackson,  Wellborn. 

Alabama Bowdon,  Cobb,  Hubbai'd,  Hams,  Inge. 

Louisiana ... La  Sere. 

Tennessee Ewing,  Han-is,  Johnson,   Jones,    Savage,  Stanton 

Thomas. 

Mississippi Brown,  Featherston,  Mc Willie,  Thompson. 

Arkansa-^ Johnson. 

Texas Howard,  Kaufman. 

Missouri B3,y,  Bowlin,  Green,  Hall,  Phelps. 

Kentucky Boyd,  Caldwell,  Mason,  Stanton. 


16 


HISTOPA''  AND  UNCONSTITUTIONALITY 


YEAS — ^v^IGS. 

Massachusetts Samuel  A.  Elliot,  of  Boston. 

Ohio John  L.  Taylor,  of  Chillicothe. 

Indkina Edward  W.  McGaughey,  of  Rockville, 


Virginia Haymond,  Morton. 

Maryland. Bowie,  Kerr. 

Delaware Houston. 

North  Carolina..   Clingman,   Deberry, 
Stanley. 

Georgia Owen,  Toombs. 

A labama Alston,  Hilliard.  . 

Tennessee Anderson,    Gentry, 


Daniel,   Outlaw,    Sbepperd' 


Watkins,   Williams. 
Kentucky Breck,  Johnson,  Marshall,  McLean,  Thompson. 

IS'AYS DEMOCRATS. 

Maine Cullex  Sawtelle,    of    Norridge wock ;    Charles 

Stetsox,  of  Bangor, 

Connecticut "Walter  Booth,  of  Meriden  ;  Lorex  P.  "Waldo,  of 

Tolland. 

Ohio Joseph  Cable,  of  Carrolton ;  David  K.  Carter,  of 

Massillon ;  Dayid  T.  Disxey,  of  Cincinnati ;  Joxa- 
TiiAX  D.  Morris,  of  Batavia;  Wm.  A,  "Whittle- 
sey, of  Marietta ;  Amos  E.  "Wood,  of  Woodville. 

Mich'' g an Kixsley  S,  Bixgham,  of  Kensington, 

Indiana Graham  IS".  Fitcii,  of  Logansport;    Axdrew    J. 

Harlax,  of  Marion ;  Johx  L.  Robixson,  of  Rush- 
ville. 

Illinois Joiix  "Wextworth,  of  Chicago. 

Wisconsin James  D.  Doty,   of  Meuasha. 

California Geo.  W.  "Wright, 


ISTAYS — WHIGS. 

Maine Johx  Otis,  of  Halloweil. 

Vermont "William  Hebard,  of  Chelsea;  "^''illiam  Hexey 

of  Bellows'  Falls  ;  James  Meacham. 


OF  THE    FUGITIVE  SLAVE  BILL. 


17 


NAYS — \VHiGS. — Contbnted. 
Massachusetts. . .  James  H.  Duncan,  of  Haverhill ;  Orin  Fo^w-ler,  of 

Fall  River ;  Horace  ]^L\xx,  of  West  Ne-wtoa 
mode  Island....  Xathax  F. Dixon,  of  Westerly;  George  G.King 
of  Newport. 

Connecticut Thos.  B.  Butler,  of  Xorwalk. 

Kew-York Henry   P.   Alexander,   of    Little  Falls;  Hentit 

Bennett,  of  New-Berlin;  George  Briggs,  of 
New- York ;  Lorenzo  Burrows,  of  Albion ;  Dan- 
iel GoTT,  of  Porapey ;  Herman  D.  Gould,  of 
Delhi ;  Ransom  Hallowat,  of  Beekman ;  Wm. 
T.  Jackson,  of  Havana ;  John  A.  King,  of  Ja- 
maica ;  Orsamus  B.  Matteson,  of  Utica ;  Thomas 
McKissocK,  of  Newburgh;  Wm.  Nelson,  of 
Peekskill ;  Harvey  Putnam,  of  Attica  ;  David 
RuMSEY,  Jr.,  of  Bath ;  Wm.  A.  Sackett,  of  Sen- 
eca Falls;  A.  M.  Schermekhorn,  of  Rochester; 
John  L.  Schoolcraft,  of  Albany;  John  R. 
Thurman,  of  Chestertown  ;  Walter  Underhill 
of  New-York ;  Peter  H.  Silvester,  of  Cox- 
sackie. 

New-Jersey Andrew  K.  Hay,  of  Winslow  ;  James  G.  King,  of 

Hoboken. 

Pennsyha.nia Sa^r'el    Caltin,   of    Hollidaysburg  ;    Joseph  R. 

Chandler,  of  Philadelphia;  J.  C.  Dickey,  of 
New-London ;  J.Freedley,  of  Norristown ;  Moses 
Hampton,  of  Pittsburg ;  H.  D.  Moore,  of  Phila- 
delphia ;  Chas.  W.  Pitman,  of  Potts^iile ;  Rob- 
ert R.  Reed,  of  Washington  ;  Thaddeus  Ste- 
vens, of  Lancaster. 

Ohio Moses   B.  Corwin,  of  Urbannn;  Nathan  Evans, 

of  Cambridge ;  Samuel  F.  Yinton,  of  Gallipolis. 

Michigan William  Sprague,  of  Kalamazoo. 

Jlli?wis Edward  D.  Baker,  of  Galena. 

}ViSconsi7i Oksasius  Cole,  of  Potonl 

NAYS— Free  Soilers. 
K(vi-Hampshire  .  Amos  Tuck,  of  Exeter. 
Massachusetts . . .   Charles  Allen,  of  Worcester. 


18  HISTOHY  AND  UNCOXSTITUTIOXALITY 

NAYS— Free  soih^ns.— Continued. 

New-  York Preston  King,  of  Ogdensburg. 

Pennsylvania  . . .  John  W.  Howe,  of  Franklin. 

Ohio Lewis  D.  Campbell,  of  Hamilton,  John  Ceowell, 

of  Warren,  J.  R.  Giddings,  of  Jefferson,  Wm. 
F.  Hunter,  of  Woodsfield,  Jos.  M.  Root,  of 
Sandusky. 

Indiana George  W.  Julian,  of  Centreviile. 

Wisconsiii Charles  Durkee,  of  Southport. 

Yeas,  109  ;  Nays,  15. 
ABSENT,  OR  NOT  VOTING. 
Northern    Whigs.— Andrews,    Aslimun,   Bokee,    Brook?,   Butler, 
Casey,  Clarke,  Conger,  Duer,  Goodenow,  Grinnell,  Levin,  Nes,  Newell, 
Ogle,  Phcenix,  Reynolds,  Risley,  Rockwell,  Rose,  Schenck,  Spaulding, 
Van  Dyke,  White— 24. 
Freesoilcrs. — Wilmot,  1. 

Northern  Democrats.— CleYel^rid,    Gilmore,   Olds,   Peck,    Potter, 
Strong,  Sweetscr,  Thompson,  of  Iowa — 8. 
Southern  Whir/s. — 3. 
Southern  Democrats. — 12. 
Total  absent,  or  not  voting — 48. 

Northern  Democrats  voting  for  the  bill — 27. 
Northern  Whigs  voting  fnr  the  bill — 3  : 
Elliott,  of  Massachusetts  ;  Taylor,  of  Ohio  ; 
McGaughey,  of  Indiana. 

The  members  who  intentionally  absented  themselves  wlien  this 
bill  was  about  to  be  voted  on,  are  less  to  be  respected  than  those  who 
boldly  recorded  their  names  in  the  affii-mative.  Some  of  the  mem- 
bers who  did  not  vote  are  known  to  be  opposed  to  the  bill,  and  will 
doubtless  give  a  good  reason  for  their  absence  at  such  a  critical  time. 
The  dough-faces,  who  dodged  as  the  vote  was  about  to  be  taken, 
should  be  ascertained,  and  held  up  to  the  merited  contempt  of  the 
world.  Mr.  Stevens,  of  Pennsylvania,  after  the  passage  of  the  bill, 
gravely  rose,  and  suggested  to  the  Chair  the  propriety  of  dispatching 
one  of  the  pages,  to  inform  his  Whig  friends  wlio  had  gone  out,  that 
they  now  could  return  in  safety,  as  the  slavery  matter  was  disposed 
of !     How  mean  and  dastardly  does  the  conduct  of  such  "  Whig 


OF  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  BILL.  19 

friends  "  appear,  compared  "^ith  the  noble  independence  of  Stevens 
and  his  respected  coadjutors,  both  Whigs  and  Democrats,  and  Free 
Soilers,  who,  by  their  votes,  stood  up  bravtlj  for  the  Constitution 
and  Human  Rights. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  Representatives  from  tlie  Free  States 
numbered  141,  wliile  the  number  from  Slave  States  was  only  91.  The 
former,  therefore,  had  they  all  voted,  could  liave  killed  the  bill.  A 
tremendous  responsibility  rests  upon  them.  There  were,  it  seems,  50 
who  were  absent,  or  who  dodged  the  question.  Why  did  any  one 
flee  from  the  House  to  save  himself  from  saying  aye  or  no  ?  Evi- 
dently because  he  feared  to  "  face  the  music,"  or,  in  other  words,  he 
was  afraid  to  meet  his  constituents  if  he  voted  aye,  and  trembled  lest 
his  party  would  lose  their  Southern  wing,  if  he  voted  nay.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  a  large  number  of  the  dodgers  from  the  Free  States 
were  convinced  that  a  majority  of  their  constituents  were  opposed  to 
the  bill,  and  that  if  they  had  voted  in  accordance  with  the  views  of 
those  they  were  sent  to  represent,  the  bill  would  have  been  defeated. 
The  people  of  the  Xorth,  therefore,  justly  feel  that  they  have  been 
betrayed  by  their  representative^,  and  in  uniting  with  the  people  of 
color  in  resisting  this  bill,  they  are  only  carrying  out  their  original 
intentions  in  the  instructions  given  to  their  Senators  and  Representa- 
tives in  Congress. 

The  above  act  was  approved  by  Millard  Fillmore,  a  northern 
President  of  the  United  States,  Sept.  18,  1850.  The  day  he  put  his 
name  to  it  will  be  a  memorable  one  in  his  life.  It  will  be  the  act  of 
his  administration,  by  which  he  will  be  distinguished  in  history.  He 
is  a  lawyer ;  he  knows  what  constitutional  law  is  ;  and  he  has  stood 
up  in  the  Halls  of  his  native  State  and  denounced  the  encroachments 
of  the  Slave  Power.  But  now  we  behold  him  basely  truckling  to 
the  dictation  of  the  South,  instead  of  promptly  and  manfully  VETO- 
IXG-  the  act,  because  affixing  his  signature  to  it  would  be  a  violation 
of  his  oath  of  office,  a  violation  of  the  Constitution,  and  an  outrage 
upon  Ci^il  Liberty.  He  had  not,  it  seems,  integi-ity  and  independence 
enough  to  act  out  the  convictions  of  his  understanding.  He  has  thus 
shown  that,  instead  of  being  the  dignified  chief  of  a  nation,  he  is  the 
instrument  of  Daniel  Webster,  the  manager  of  the  acting  President, 
the  tool  of  a  party  that  is  succumbing  to  the  Slave  Power  in  order 
to  secure  their  votes  at  the  next  Presidential  election.     For  shame ! 

We  have  said  that  the  infamous  Fugitive  Slave  Bill — it  is  not  wor- 


20  HISTORY  AND  UNCONSTITUTIOXALITY 

thy  to  be  styled  a  "  Law," — is  a  palpable  violation  of  the  Constitution, 
and  subversive  of  the  first  principles  of  Civil  Liberty.  Let  this  be 
made  clear  to  the  comprehension  of  eveiy  reader. 

THE    BILL    EXAMINED. 

The  most  infamous  feature  of  the  bill  is,  that  it  compels  eveiy 
citizen  of  the  free  States  to  be  a  "  slave-catcher.""^  It  appoints  com- 
missioners for  the  purpose,  expressly  authorizing  them  '•  to  call  to 
THEIR  AID  THE  BY-STANDERS,  or  posse  comitatus,  of  the  proper  coun- 
ty " — in  the  matter  of  seizing,  and  holding,  and  dragging  back  to 
chattelhood,  fleeing  slaves,  if  they  be  found  at  the  North.  The  posse 
comitatus  is  the  power  of  the  county.  The  militia,  if  the  slave- 
catcher  require  it,  may  be  called  on,  to  hunt  men  and  women  and 
children,  as  wild  beasts,  and  to  restore  them  to  slavery.  And  the 
5  th  section  has  in  it  this  most  remarkable  paragraph — 

"  All  good  citizexs  are  hereby  coiniAXDED  to  aid  and  assist  in 
the  prompt  and  efficient  executioii  of  this  law,  whenever  their  services 
may  he  required^ 

"We  ask  every  citizen  of  Xew-Yoiiic,  if  he  does  not  feel  all  about 
his  heart  and  conscience,  that  a  law  like  that  has  no  claim  upon  him 
and  that  it  is  absolutely  void  ?  "We  were  once  told  by  tliose  who 
made  this  law,  that  "  we  had  nothing  to  do  with  slavery."  Yerily 
slavery  has  much  to  do  with  us,  and  necessarily  we  have  much  to  do 
with  it,  in  whatever  it  has  to  do  with  us.  It  is  not  enough  that  it 
seizes  our  Northern  seamen  in  Southern  ports,  and  sells  them  into 
slavery — not  enough  that  it  denies  the  beiiefit  of  the  laws,  and  mobs 
us  when  we  go  there  to  bring  the  cases  of  our  enslaved  and  persectited 
citizens  before  the  com-ts — but  with  unaccountable  insolence,  it  enacts 
that  we  shall  return  them  to  bondage  if  they  escape  to  their  Northern 
families  and  homes. 

It  constitutes  at  the  North,  in  our  neighborhoods,  and  by  our  fire- 
sides, the  most  anomalous,  overshadowing,  insulting,  and  despotic 
police  that  perverted  mind  can  contrive,  or  guilty  power  sustain  — a 
police  which  guilty  power  cannot  sustain,  until  honor,  and  purity,  and 
freedom  have  fled  from  among  us,  and  we  have  consented  to  be 
the  most  drivelling,  and  base,  and  worthless  slaves  that  ever  crawled 
at  the  Toot  of  Tyranny.    Be  it  remembered,  he  who  is  forced  to  serve 

•  In  examining  the  bill  we  have  made  free  use  of  the  excellent  remarks  of  the 
editor  of  the  Liberty  Party  Paper,  printed  at  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 


OF  THE    FUGITIVE  SLAVE  BILL. 


21 


is  no  more  a  slave  than  he  who  is  forced  to  compel  others  to  serve. 
Nav,  we  hold  that  slavery  the  most  degrading,  that  forces  us,  whether 
we  will  or  no,  io  force  others  into  bondage,  and  keep  them  there  for  the 
use  and  benelit  of  inhuman  monsters,  who  shake  their  manacles  over 
both,  and  open  our  own  prisons  to  both,  if  we  fail  to  obey  their  inso- 
lent and  hellish  behests.  This  law  leaves  the  freeman  at  the  North 
no  alternative.     HE   MUST  DISOBEY  THE  LAW. 

Let  the  following  pledge  be  signed  by  men  and  women  in  every 
town  in  the  free  States,  in  regard  to  this  matter : 

PLEDGE. 

"Whereas  the  late  act  of  Congress  makes  a  refusal  to  aid  in 
the  capture  of  a  fugitive  a  penal  offence,  the  subscribers  belxg 
restrained  bv  conscientious  moth^es  from  rendering  any  active 
obedience  to  the  law,  do  soleilnly  pledge  ourselves  to  each 
other,  rather  to  submit  to  its  penalties,  than  to  obey  its  provis- 
IONS. 

This  Pledge  should  be  printed,  and  circulated  over  the  land,  and 
can  be  returned  by  the  1st  of  December,  to  Lewis  Tappan,  61  John 
street,  New- York  city,  for  the  purpose  of  publishing  the  names  ; 
thus  producing  a  powerful  influence  upon  public  opiniim,  and  prepar- 
ing the  way  for  the  repeal  of  this  diabolical  bill  And  we  advise 
that  it  be  printed  on"  handbills,  and  posted  up  in  every  dwelling- 
house,  store,  shop,  manufactory,  and  other  place  of  resort,  that  all  may- 
read  it,  and  have  their  attention  attracted  to  the  Pledge,  as  it  may 
be  circulated  for  signatm-es. 

The  punishment  for  aiding  in  the  escape  of  the  fugitive,  or  for  har- 
boring him,  is  ONE  THOUSAND  DOLLARS,  with  IMPRISON- 
MENT not  exceeding  six  months,  besides  one  thousand  dollars,  to  be 
recovered  in  a  suit  for  civil  damages,  for  each  fugitive  thus  aided  or 
harbored. 

Another  aggravating  feature  of  this  BUI  is,  that  it  proposes  a  bribe 
to  the  cupidity  of  the  sunken  and  worthless  spirits,  who,  alone,  will 
accept  a  conimission  under  it.    Mark  the  direct  terms  of  this  bribe : 

"  In  all  cases  where  the  proceedings  are  before  a  commissioner,  he 
shall  be  entitled  to  a  fee  of  $10,  in  full  for  his  services  in  such  case, 
upon  the  delivery  of  the  said  certificate  to  the  complainant,  his  or  her 
agent,  or  attorney  ;  or  a  fee  oi  five  dollars,  in  ca^es  where  the  proof 
shall  not,  in  the  opinion  of  such  commissioner,  loarrant  such  certifi- 
cate and  delivei-1/" 


22  HISTORY  AND  UXCOXSTITUTIOXALITY 

The  sordid  villain  -wbo  is  to  have  this  office,  takes  no  salary  ■with  it, 
but  is  paid  ten  dollars  for  every  man  he  adjudges  to  be  a  slave,  and  is 
to  have  85  in  every  case  where  he  does  not  so  adjudge. 

Another  peculiarity  of  this  law  is,  that  it  makes  no  exceptions  on 
account  of  color.  We  mention  this,  not  because  we  detest  it  any  more 
for  that — for  indeed  we  like  it  the  better  on  that  account — neverthe- 
less, we  wish  our  white  citizens  to  understand,  that  ovir  Congress  have 
directly  opened  the  door,  by  statutes,  for  the  enslavement  of  our  o^^-n 
children.  It  is  unaccountable,  that  parties,  for  party  purposes,  can 
thus  resolve  their  government  into  a  despotism  the  most  downright 
that  has  ever  existed  1  It  will  be  more  astonishing  still,  if  the  people 
have  so  little  respect  for  human  freedom  as  to  submit  to  it.  The 
effect  of  the  law,  if  carried  out,  according  to  its  letter  and  intent,  is  to 
make  the  Free  States  the  Guinea  of  America,  where  the  dealers  in 
human  flesh  may  hunt,  and  prowl,  under  the  auspices  of  the  general 
government,  and  pick  up  their  victims,  black  and  white  together,  for 
the  southern  market. 

Tlie  only  evidence  which  is  required  of  a  southern  kidnapper  is, 
that  he  give  his  own  ^Uleposition  or  affidavit"  before  a  judge  or  com- 
missioner, or  justice  of  the  peace,  in  "  the  State  or  territory  from  which 
such  person  owing  services  has  escaped"  and  such  judge  or  com- 
missioner shall  dehver  to  such  claimant,  or  his  agent,  a  warrant,  which 
shall  be  his  aidhority  "  to  use  such  reasonable  force  or  restraint  as  is 
necessary"  "  to  remove  him  (the  person  claimed)  back  to  the  State 
from  whence  he  fled."  And  to  cut  off  all  hope  of  the  poor  man  who 
is  thus  pounced  upon,  it  is  further  expressly  provided,  as  follows : — 

"  In  xo  trial  or  hearing  under  this  act  shall  the  testimony  of 
SAID  ALLEGED  FUGITIVE  BE  ADMITTED — and  the  certificate  in  this  and 
the  first  section  mentioned,  shall  be  conclusive  of  the  right  of  the 

PERSON  or  persons  IN  WHOSE  FAVOR  GRANTED,  TO  REMOVE  SUCH  FUGI- 
TIVE TO  THE  State  or  Territory  from  avhich  he  escaped,  and  shall 

PREVENT  all  MOLESTATION  OF  SUCH  PERSON  OR  PERSONS  BY  ANY  PROCESS 
ISSUED  BY  ANY  CoLTlT  OR  JuDGE,  MAGISTRATE,  OR  OTHER  PERSON  WHOM- 
SOEVER." 

"  A  human  being,"  says  Judge  Jay,  in  commenting  upon  this  law, 
"  is  stripped  of  every  right,  and  reduced  to  the  condition  of  a  vendi- 
ble beast  of  burden,  with  less  ceremony,  and  with  more  celerity,  than 
one  neighbor  can  recover  of  another  the  value  of  a  pig  in  any  Court 
of  Justice.    The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  secures  a  trial  by 


OF  TUE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  BILL. 


23 


jury  in  suits  at  coromon  la\v  in  all  cases  where  the  value  in  contro- 
versy exceeds  tsvextt  dollars  ;  but  here,  where  the  matter  in  con- 
troversy is  the  hberty  of  an  immortal  man,  and  all  his  hopes  of  hap- 
piness in  the  life  that  is,  and  that  which  is  to  come,  no  jiu-y  is  allowed ; 
but  a  village  postmaster,  (or  any  other  person  appointed  commis- 
sioner,) with  the  promise  of  ten  dollars  if  he  decides  fo'-  the  slave- 
holder, and  of  only  five  if  against  him,  is  deemed  a  sufficient  tribunal 
for  the  protection  of  a  human  being,  to  whom  the  Creator  has  pleased 
to  give  a  dark-colored  skin." 

Tiike  the  case  of  the  late  Professor  TTebster.  If  he  had  been  poor,  the 
court  would  haVe  assigned  him  counsel.  Js'o  one,  ever  so  villainous  or 
criminal,  arraigned  for  the  most  heinous  crime,  is  deprived  of  all  the 
aid  and  lenity  our  courts  can  bestow.  But  if  a  man  is  charged  with 
the  offence  of  being  a  slave,  all  such  aid  is  denied  him,  and  the  "  law" 
wreaks  its  vengeance  upon  his  defenceless  head.  Surely  "  the  throne 
of  iniquity  "  has  been  framing  "  mischief  by  a  law." 

"Who  ever  heard  of  so  atrocious  a  law  ?  One  man,  on  liis  own  depo- 
sition or  affidavit,  allowed,  by  order  of  a  commissioner,  to  claim  an- 
other man  or  woman  as  his  property ! — forbid  to  repel  the  affidavit 
or  deposition  with  his  own  1 — forbid  any  defence  whatever,  however 
abundant  his  means  of  defence,  and  to  be  delivered  over  by  the  war- 
rant of  such  commissioner  to  the  claimant,  whose  character  and  claims 
such  commissioner  may  not  allow  him  or  her  to  impeach  in  any  manner 
whatever! — given  over,  him  and  his  posterity  for  ever,  to  eternal  bon- 
dage !  "Will  not  God's  ciurse  smite  the  heartless  villain  who  will  attempt 
to  execute  such  a  law  ?  Do  we  deserve  to  be  a  free  people  ;  can  we 
expect  to  escape  the  anger  of  Heaven,  if  we  do  not  smite  the  law  and 
its  executors  together  in  the  dust  ? 

The  certificates  referred  to  in  the  above  paragraph,  are,  the  certificate 
of  the  judge  or  justice  in  the  slave  State  or  Ten-itory,  that  the  affidavit 
or  deposition  was  in  fact  taken  before  him,  and  wliich  is  sealed  by 
him,  thereby  -giving  it  the  force  of  Record,  and  unimpeachable  and 
conclusive  evidence  against  the  fugitive ;  also  the  certificate  of  the 
commissioner,  that  the  slave  has  been  brought  before  him  on  the  fonner 
affidavit  and  certificate,  and  by  him  dehvered  over  to  his  tormentors. 
These  are. the  only  certificates  mentioned  in  this  act.  It  is  apparent,  . 
therefore,  that  there  is  nothing  like  a  trial  in  the  case.  To  know  that 
there  is  not,  we  need  but  revert  to  the  6th  section,  which  gives  the 
proceedings  before  the   commissioner,  and  compare  them  with  the 


24  •    HISTORY  AND  UXCONSTITLTTIONALITT 

proceedings  authorized  under  the  10th  section,  before  a  court.  In  the 
latter  case,  the  claimant  is  requii'ed  to  "  make  satisfactory  proof  •" 
in  the  former,  he  presents  only  the  certificate  of  his  own  deposition, 
made  out  by  a  judge  or  justice  of  a  foreign  State,  and  in  the  latter  he 
is  required  to  resort  to  common  law  proof,  (because  the  com-ts  may 
make  judgment,  or  act  in  no  case  whatever  but  upon  common  law 
proof.)  The  proceedings  imder  this  statute  are  authorized,  therefore, 
expressly  to  evade  coimnon  law  remedies  and  rights,  and  give  tl:e 
victim  over  to  his  demandant  without  common  law  protection  or 
remedy,  against  every  principle  of  law  or  justice  sanctioned  by  any  juris- 
prudence of  any  people  whatever.  The  defendant  is  expressly  denied 
the  right  to  prove  that  the  papers  adduced  against  him  are  a  forgery. 
It  will  be  seen  that  the  proceeding  under  this  act  is  entirely  ex-parte — 
the  order  of  the  commissioner  is  ex-parte,  even  in  the  face  of  the  de- 
fendant— the  whole  proceedings  are  on  the  part  of  the  demandant, 
and  no  act,  proceeding,  resistance,  or  defence  whatever  are  allowed 
to  the  defendant.  Submission  to  his  demandant  is  all  that  is  admis- 
sible on  his  part.  The  same  section  that  provides  the  commissioner 
to  effect  the  intent  of  the  statute,  authorizes  the  demandant  to  arrest 
the  person  of  his  victim  without  aid.  The  appointment  of  the  com- 
missioner is  but  to  supply  the  lack  of  physical  power  in  the  claimant 
to  seize  and  enslave  his  victim.  Had  he  power,  in  his  own  person,  to 
arrest  and  return  the  fugitive,  the  law  would  not  be  called  for,  and 
would  not  have  been  enacted.  But  he  has  no  such  physical  power, 
and  therefore  Congress  authorizes  this  means  to  aid  the  slaveholder 
in  the  premises,  with  the  physical  power  of  the  States.  There  is 
therefore  nothing  resembling,  as  to  form  or  intent,  the  doings  of  a 
court  of  law  in  the  matter.  It  is  simply  a  mode  prescribed,  in  the 
form  of  law,  by  which  the  nation  shall  engage  in  behalf  of  the  most 
squahd  and  Umitless  despotism  that  can  exist  among  men.  The  com- 
missioner is  an  agent  only  in  one  state  of  the  case — and  the  posse 
co7nitatus,  or  the  militia  of  the  country,  and  "all  good  citizens," 
are  forced  into  the  array  in  another  state  of  the  case,  to  gratify  the 
individual  wishes,  interests,  or  intent,  of  the  most  absolute  despot  that 
mind  can  conceive  of,  or  power  create.  It  is  said,  sometimes,  that 
"  Congress  cannot  make  a  slave  or  a  king."  This  most  atrocious  act 
reverses  this  position,  and  expressly  creates  the  relation  of  "  King 
and  Slave,''  and  that  too  under  the  most  objectionable  and  revolting 
circumstances. 


OF  THE  fugiti\t:  sla^t:  bill.  25 

Not  only  does  this  law  take  from  all  Xorthera  men  every  legal 
right,  but  it  forbids  all  the  tribunals  of  the  country,  whether  state  or 
national,  to  interfere  in  their  behalf,  if  demanded  as  Slaves,  by  any 
perjured  scoimdrel  who  may  have  the  audacity  to  make  the  demand 
and  swear  to  it.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  declares  that 
the  "Habeas  Corpus  shall  not  he  suspendedr  This  act  pointedly 
destroys  it,  by  providing,  as  it  does,  that  the  certificate  of  such  com- 
missioner "  SHALL  PIIEVE>T  ALL  MOLESTATIOX  OF  SAID  PEKSOX  OB  PER- 
SONS (the  claimant  and  his  agents)  by  axt  process  issued  by  axy 
Judge,  Magistrate,  or  other  person  whomsoever,"  The  Habeas 
Corpus  is  a  "process  issued"  in  behalf  of  freedom.  This  law  declares 
that  such  writ  shall  not  issue  when  Slavery  demands  any  man,  woman, 
or  child,  of  any  color,  or  condition,  as  a  Slave. 

Again.  This  law  applies  as  well  to  apprentices  and  minors'as^to 
slaves.  It  gives  the  aforesaid  imaccountable  power  and  authority,  in  all 
cases  in  which  persons  are  charged  as  "fugitives  from  labor!'  The  word 
slave,  or  slaves,  is  not  used  by  the  act.  It  treats  only  of  "fugitives 
from  service  or  labor."  In  no  case  are  the  subjects  of  this  severity 
called  slaves.  This  act,  then,  reverses  all  the  laws  of  this  State,  and 
other  States,  regulating  "  masters,  apprentices  and  servants,"  as  well 
as  of  "  parent  and  child"  in  this  regard.  A  Southern  man-thief  has  but 
to  come  among  us,  and  demand  our  childran  as  his  children,  and 
claim  that  they  "  owe  hrm  service,"  or  demand  them  as  apprentices 
who  "  owe  him  service  or  labor"  and  they  are  expressly  forbid  the 
right  to  try  the  question  whether  the  villain's  claim  is  true  or  false. 
Tlie  commissioners  in  such  case  are  ordered  by  the  letter  of  the  act 
to  give  them  up  and  tote  them  off  to  legal  bondage.  The  statutes  of 
the  State  giving  jurisdiction,  and  made  to  try  the  right  before  its 
own  Judges  and  Justices,  are  all  reversed,  and  the  helpless  youth  is 
given  up  without  trial,  on  the  exparte  affidavit  of  a  foreigner,  which 
he  may  not  controvert  or  impeach,  to  go  hence  for  ever.  Were  this 
law  to  be  construed  to  be  applicable  to  parent  and  child,  and  master 
and  apprentice,  alone — as  by  its  terms  it  is  only  applicable — its  pro- 
visions would  be  regarded  as  too  atrocious  and  despotic  to  be  obeyed. 
Men,  nor  women,  nor  children,  sons  nor  servants,  masters  nor  appren- 
tices, would  consent  that  slaveholders  of  foreign  States  should,  by  so 
rude  a  tyranny,  break  up  the  primeval  and  dearest  relations  of  society 
among  us.  And  yet  Congress,  to  aid  cruel  men  to  hold  other  men 
and  women  as  cattle,  has  expressly  interfered  with  our  own  domestic 
2 


26  HISTORY  AND  UNCONSTITTUIONALITY 

relations,  and  expressly  thrown  down  every  barrier,  exposed  them 
to  the  human  wolves  and  lusty  man-thieves  who  prowl  for  prey  amid 
the  desolations  of  slavery. 

A  father,  or  mother,  or  master,  are  expressly  forbid  to  defend  their 
son  or  daughter,  or  apprentice,  against  the  demand  of  a  slaveholder 
of  a  slaveholding  State,  if  such  demand  is  but  supported  by  the 
deposition  of  a  person  unknown  to  such  father,  master,  son  or  appren- 
tice in  a  foreign  State,  and  who  therefore  could  not  be  confronted 
or  cross-questioned  by  them ;  but  such  son,  daughter  or  apprentice  is 
ruthlessly  torn  from  his  parental  relations,  by  the  power  of  a  free 
State,  (which  may  God  forbid,)  and  given  over  to  the  blackness  of 
darkness  of  slavery.  The  blood  almost  curdles  at  the  recital.  If 
such  an  enactment  had  been  promulgated  as  the  decree  of  the  Rus- 
sian Autocrat,  or  the  mihtary  order  of  the  bloody  Haynau,  men 
would  shudder.  Yet  Daniel  Webster  could  go  for  the  bill  to  the 
"  fullest  extent,"  and  Moses  Stuart  could  say  of  him,  "  Posterity,  di- 
vested of  partizan  feeling  and  prejudice,  will  erect  to  him  a  lofty 
monument." 

UNCONSTITUTIONALITY  OF    THE    BILL. 

Senator  Chase,  in  his  speech  of  March  26th,  said : — 

I  ask  Senators,  who  propose  to  support  that  bill,  where  they  find  the  power 
to  legislate  on  this  subject  in  the  Constitution?  I  know  to  what  clause  I  shall 
be  referred.  I  know  I  shall  be  told  that  the  Constitution  provides  that  "no 
person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State,  under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping 
into  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged 
from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  deUvered  up  on  claim  of  the  party 
to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due."  But  this  clause  contains  no  grant 
of  legislative  power  to  Congress.  That  power  is  conferred  exclusively  by  special 
clauses,  granting  legislative  power  in  respect  to  particular  subjects,  and  by  the 
eighth  section  of  the  first  article,  which,  after  enumerating  the  specific  powers 
of  Congress,  proceeds  to  declare  that  Congress  shall  have  power  "  to  make  aU 
laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into  execution  the  fore- 
going powers,  and  all  other  powers  vested  by  this  Constitution  in  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  department  or  office  thereof. 

Now,  Sir,  what  power  is  vested,  by  the  clause,  in  relation  to  fugitives  from 
service,  in  the  government,  or  in  any  department  or  officer  of  the  government  ? 
None  at  aU ;  and  if  none,  then  the  legislative  power  of  Congress  does  not  extend 
to  the  subject.  The  clause  is  a  clause  of  compact.  It  has  been  so  denominated 
by  every  Senator  who  has  had  occasion  to  speak  of  it.  The  honorable  Senator 
from  Massachusetts  told  us  that  he  "always  thought  that  the  Constitution  ad- 
di-essed  itself  to  the  Legislatures  of  the  States,  or  to  the  States  themselves ;  that 
he  had  always  been  of  the  opinion  that  it  was  an  injunction  upon  the  States 


OF  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  BILL.  27 

themselves."    If  this  opinion  be  coirect,  the  power  of  legislation  and  the  duty 
of  legislation  must  be  with  the  States,  and  not  with  Congress." 

We  are  not  prepared,  I  hope,  and  I  trust  we  never  shall  be  prepared,  to  give  the 
eanction  of  the  American  Senate  to  the  bill  and  the  amendments  now  upon  our 
table — a  bill  which  authorizes  and  requires  the  appointment  of  two  hundred  and 
sixty-one  commissioners,  and  an  indefinite  number  of  other  officers,  to  catch 
run-away  slaves  in  the  State  of  Ohio  ;  which  punishes  humanity  as  a  crime ; 
which  authorizes  seizure  without  process,  trial  without  a  jury,  and  consignment 
to  slavery  beyond  the  limits  of  the  State,  without  opportunity  of  defence,  and 
upon  ex-parte  testimony.    Certainly  no  such  biU  can  receive  my  vote." 

Furthennore,  the  Bill  suspends  the  Habeas  Corptcs  Act,^  the  great 
bulwark  of  liberty,  the  Magna  Charta  of  the  civilized  world.  In 
Section  IX.  of  the  Constitution  is  this  clause : 

"The  privilege  of  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  shall  not  be 
suspended  unless  when,  in   cases  of  rebellion   or  invasion,  the 

PUBLIC   SAFETY   ilAY   REQUIRE   IT." 

There  was  no  "  rebellion  or  invasion "  in  the  land  when  the  Bill 
was  passed,  although  it  is  impossible  to  tell  how  soon  the  fact  will  be 
otherwise,  if  its  diaboHcal  provisions  continue  to  be  carried  out.  The 
Bill,  as  has  been  shown,  is  not  confined  to  fugitive  slaves ;  it  inchides 
all  "fugitives  from  service  or  labor"  be  they  white  or  colored.  The 
Fugitive  Slave  BiU,  Section  VI,  constitutes  the  commissioner  a 
coui't,  from  whose  decision  there  is  no  appeal !  There  shall  be  no 
"  molestation  of  said  person  or  persons,  by  any  process  issued  by  any 
court,  judge,  magistrate,  or  other  person  whomsoever."  The  commis- 
sioner, whoever  he  may  be,  a  Postmaster,  Collector,  Tide-waiter, 
Ward  Justice,  Street  Inspector,  Clerk  of  the  Market — in  the  recent 
case,  the  Clerk  of  the  Circuit  Court— is  constituted  the  High  Court  of 
Judicature,  his  decree  is  ureversible,  and  neither  any  judge  of  the 
State  Coui-ts,  or  United  States  Court,  can  issue  the  writ  of  Habeas 
Corpus,  for  the  purpose  of  inquiring  whether  the  person  has  been 
illegally  deprived  of  his  liberty. 

By  an  act  of  the  State  of  llew-York,  and  by  similar  acts  of  other 
States,  a  slave  brought  into  the  State  by  his  master  shall  be  free.  But 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  appears  to  trample  upon  the  State  laws  in 
this  respect.    Such  a  person — once  a  slave — may  be  arrested  under 

*  Habeas  Corpus.— ^^  You  may  have  the  body  before  the  Court."  This  is  the 
great  writ  of  personal  Uberty.  It  lies,  where  a  person  being  indicted  or  im- 
prisoned, (and  an  illegal  arrest  ia  in  law  an  "  imprisonment,")  unlawfully  or 
unconstitutionally,  applies  to  another  tribunal  for  relief  in  the  premises. 


28  HISTORY  AKD  UNCONSTITUTIO^-ALITY 

the  Bill,  be  taken  before  a  commissioner,  and  be  remanded  into 
slavery.  The  decision  of  the  upstart  cominissioner-judge,  is  "  conclu- 
sive ;"  there  shall  be  no  molestation  by  any  process  issued  by  any 
court,  judge,  magistrate,  or  other  person  whomsoever !  It  is  true  that 
the  language  of  the  bill  is,  that  slaves  who  shall  escape /?-o?7i  one  State 
into  anotlier  State,  may  be  arrested  and  remanded  back ;  but  in  the 
phraseolgy  of  slaveholders  it  is  an  "  escape  " — a  constructive  escape — 
to  run  away  from  the  master  anywhere. 

In  the  celebrated  Prigg  case,  in  Pennsylvania,  Judge  Story,  in  the 
name  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  gave  an  opinion 
that  the  law  of  1 Y93,  upon  which  the  late  Fugitive  Slave  BiU  is  foimded, 
was  is  some  respects  not  free  from  reasonable  doubt  or  difficulty  as  to 
its  constitutionality,  viz. :  in  that  part  that  conferred  authority  on  State 
magistrates  to  issue  process,  (fee,  for  the  reclamation  of  fugitive  slaves, 
and  which  has  been  generally  understood  to  require  them  to  perform 
this  service.  Eminent  jurists  in  several  States  have  long  since  given 
similar  opinions.  Hon.  Thaddeus  Stevens,  of  Pennsylvania,  during  the 
recent  session,  in  his  place  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
pronoimced  the  law  of  1793  INFAMOUS.  I^ongress  cannot  confer 
jurisdiction  upon  a  court  not  created  by  the  Constitution  and  laws  of 
the  United  States  ;  and  transcended  its  powers  in  this  way,  in  the  en- 
actment of  the  law  of  1793,  which  was  besides  imconstitutional,  because 
it  authorized  the  Federal  Courts  to  try  a  claim  to  a  man  as  a  slave, 
witliout  the  intervention  of  a  juiy.  The  Constitution  (Art.  5  of  the 
Amendments)  says  that  no  person  shall  be  "  deprived  of  life,  liberty^ 
or  property,  without  due  process  of  law."  And  Aii.  6th  provides  that 
in  criminal  prosecutions,  (and  the  proceedings  in  the  case  of  Hamlet 
were  of  a  criminal  nature,)  the  accused  shall  enjoy  a  speedy  and  public 
trial  by  jm-j,  and  be  confronted  with  the  witness  against  him.  Neither 
the  law  just  passed,  nor  any  other,  can  constitutionally  take  away  this 
right,  or  authorize  any  commissioner  or  court  to  determine  a  case 
afifecting  the  life  or  liberty  of  an  individual  in  a  "summary  manner." 
It  is  vesting  such  commissioner  or  coiu-t  with  power  as  absolute  as 
that  of  the  "  Star  Chamber,"  or  "  Turkish  Kadis."  It  has  been  well  said 
that  the  courts  of  the  United  States  have  power  to  apj^oint  com- 
missioners to  take  affidavits  and  acknowledgments  of  bail ;  but  they 
do  not  possess,  and  cannot  receive,  authority  from  Congress  to  delegate 
to  a  commissioner  the  power  of  trying  a  cause. 

We  see  that  the  Bill  enacted  by  Congress  in  1793,  approved  by 


OF  THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE  BILL.  29 

President  Washington,  acquiesced  in  for  more  than  fifty  years,  is  pro- 
nounced unconstitutional,  or,  in  the  carefully-worded  language  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  "  not  free  from  reasonable  doubt  as  to  its  constitu- 
tionality," in  one  or  more  of  its  principal  provisions,  by  the  decision 
of  the  highest  judicial  coiirt  of  the  country.  It  shows  that  the  gen- 
tlemen in  both  Houses  of  Congress,  when  they  enact  laws  under  the 
screws  of  party,  and  amidst  champagne,  clamor,  and  cries  for  the  "pre- 
vious question, "  may  be  enacting  unconstitutional  statutes.  If  they 
do  this  in  one  case,  they  are  liable  to  do  it  in  another.  Infallibility 
does  not  pertain  to  such  a  body  of  men  as  compose  the  present  House 
of  Representatives. 

The  clause  of  the  Constitution,  already  referred  to,  says :  "  "No  per- 
son held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State  imder  the  laws  thereof,  escap- 
ing into  another,  shall  be  delivered  up,"  <fcc.  Mark  the  expression. 
The  meaning  clearly  is  '  another  State,'  not  a  Territory.  A  slave, 
then,  escaping  from  a  Territory  of  the  United  States  into  one  of  the 
States,  cannot  constitutionally  be  pursued  and  remanded  into  slavery.* 
Of  course,  that  portion  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  which  authorizes 
the  arrest  of  an  alleged  slave  who  has  fled  from  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia, the  certificate  of  the  commissioner,  and  the  carrying  back,  in 
chains,  of  the  prisoner,  by  the  marshal,  is  unconstitutional,  and  there- 
fore void.  It  will  be  observed  that  m  the  last  section  the  law  con- 
fers jurisdiction  upon  a  State  Court  of  Record.  It  is  settled  that 
Congress  cannot  confer  jurisdiction  upon  any  court  not  created  by  the 
Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States. 

Among  the  fundamental  principles  of  a  free  people  and  a  constitu- 
tional government,  are  these — The  right  of  an  accused  person  to  meet 
his  accuser  or  claimant  face  to  face,  to  examine  his  witnesses  in  Court, 
to  ejnploy  counsel,  and  should  he  be  poor,  to  have  counsel  assigned  by 
the  Court,  and  to  be  teied  by  ax  impaktial  jury.  Even  men  ac- 
cused of  the  most  atrocious  crimes  can  legally  claim  each  and  fill  these 
privileges ;  and  after  conviction;- so  lenient  is,  the  law,  and  so  humane 
the  practise,  that  great  forbearance  is  shown  to  the  convict.  He  may 
move  for  a  new  trial,  and  have  the  question  elaborately  argued ;  the 
Court,  after  advisement,  delivers  a  formal  opinion ;  the  executive  pa- 

*  Whoever  defends  "William  C.  Chaplin,  mnst  take  the  ground,  that  it  is  no 
crime,  tinder  the  Constitution,  to  aid  a  bondman  to  escape  from  the  District  o{ 
Colaimbia  into  Maryland,  or  any  other  State ;  to  say  nothing  here  of  the  fact  that 
Slavery  itself  does  not  constitutionally  exiat  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

2* 


30  THE    FUGITIVE    SLAVE    BILL. 

tiently  listens  to  the  entreaties  and  arguments  of  friends.  Meantime 
the  prisoner  is  treated  with  kindness ;  he  may  receive  the  visits  of 
his  family ;  and  in  all  the  proceedings,  both  before  and  after  convic- 
tion, justice  is  tempered  with  mercy.  But  in  the  case  of  a  poor  man, 
^^^r"  arrested  under  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  none  of  these  things  axe  meted 
4^''  ,  'Out  to  him.  He  may  be  decoyed,  as  was  Hamlet,  under  lying  state- 
^  ments,  by  govermental  officials,  to  a  court-room ;  no  counsel  is  assigned 
to  him ;  he  is  not  permitted  to  send  for  his  friends ;  testimony  against 
him  is  taken  in  an  adjoining  apartment;  he  is  adjudged  by  some 
understrapper,  unconstitutionally  clothed  with  high  judicial  powers,  to 
perpetual  slavery  ;  is  hand-cuffed  in  the  court-room,  denied  the  melan- 
choly gratification  of  bidding  his  wife  and  little  ones  a-final  adieu, 
or  even  the  miserable  consolation  of  apprising  them  of  his  situation ; 
and  in  hot  haste  is  carried  to  a  Southern  dungeon.  This  is  done,  not  in 
a  land  of  savages  or  pirates,  but  in  a  Cllristian  city^-i4  the  Temple  of 
Justice,  by  men  of  respectable  descent  and  standing !  "  The  law 
allows  it,  and  the  court  awards  it."  Northern  men  willingly  become 
slave-catchers,  and  take  great  delight  in  obsequiousness  to  Southern 
slaveholders,  and  in  truckling  to  their  aiTOgance.  Even  the  sons  and 
grandsons  of  illustrious  men  are  content  to  wear  Southern  livery. 
The  law  requires  that  the  proceedings  shall  be  "  summary,"  and  the 
ministers  of  the  law,  with  demoniacal  impetuosity  and  cruelty,  admin- 
ister it  to  the  letter.  Gracious  heavens !  Do  we  live  in  the  land  of 
the  pilgrims  ?  Does  the  blood  of  Hampden  and  Sidney  flow  in  our 
veins  ?  Are  we  the  countrymen  of  Patrick  Henry  ?  Did  Lafayette 
fight  to  achieve  our  freedom  ?     Is  this  the  model  Repubhc  ?    Are  we 

MEN? 

It  is  said,  "  The  compromises  of  the  Constitution  must  be  observed ; 
these  men  are  not  citizens,  but  only  slaves."  This  is  said  by  those  who 
basely  submit  to  the  violation  of  the  Constitution  by  South  Carolina* 
in  imprisoning  colored  seamen,  citizens  of  Massachusetts,  and  selling 
them  to  pay  jail  fees,  when  the  Constitution  declares,  "the  citizens  of 
each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immimities  of 
citizens  in  the  several  States."  But  it  is  not  fugitive  slaves  alone  that 
the  Bill  reaches.  Every  colored  person  in  the  free  States  is  liable  to 
be  arrested  and  to  be  carried  into  slavery  by  the  practise  under  this 
Act.  The  affidavit  of  a  slaveholder,  and  the  testimony  of  some  per- 
jured accomplice  among  our  own  citizens,  will  be  deemed  sufficient  by 
many  of  these  commissioners  to  entitle  the  claimant  to  a  certificate.  It  is 


APPENDIX.  31 

in  view  of  this  that  the  Bill  hag  carried  consternation  into  the  dwell- 
ing of  every  free  colored  family  in  the  free  States,  and  that  men, 
■women  and  children,  bom  of  free  parents,  and  peaceably  pnrsuing  their 
honest  occupations,  have  their  heart-strings  broken,  and  are  now  Living 
by  day  and  night  in  constant  dread  of  molestation.  Xor  is  this  all ; 
the  Bill,  as  before  stated,  makes  no  allusion  to  colored  people ;  it 
applies  to  persons  of  aU  complexions  and  in  all  conditions.  The  hberty 
of  every  citizen  is  placed  in  jeopardy  by  this  "BiU  of  Abominations." 
The  oath  of  any  two  miscreants,  before  a  corrupt  and  nefarious  com- 
missioner, is  sufficient  to  deprive  him  of  his  freedom,  and  hurry  him 
to  a  Southern  jaiL  If  this  Bill  is  submitted  to,  in  the  case  of  a  fugitive, 
free  colored,  nay,  white  citizens,  have  no  liberty  left  to  boast  o^  and 
had  better  be  citizens  of  Tmkey  than  of  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica. Let  those  who  voted  for  the  Bill,  or,  being  able  to  attend  upon 
their  legislative  duties,  "  dodged"  the  question,  be  made  answerable  at 
the  bar  of  public  opinion,  and  be  consigned  to  perpetual  ignominy ; 
let  an  indignant  rebuke  everywhere  go  forth  in  relation  to  those  who 
counselled  the  executive  to  sanction  it ;  let  the  Chief  Magistrate ,  who 
wrote  "  approved,"  be  remembered  by  an  insulted  people ;  and  let  the 
watchword  be  tliroughout  every  free  State,  in  every  city,  town  and 
village,  THE  REPEAL  OF  THE  IN'FAMOUS  BILL ! 


APPENDIX. 


MEETING  or  THE  COLORED  POPULATION. 

THEIR   DEXCXCIATIOX   OF   THE   FUGITIVE  SLAVE   BILL. 

A  meeting  of  colored  people  was  held  on  the  evening  of  October 
2d,  at  the  Zion  Chapel,  Church  street.  The  building,  which  is  capable 
of  holding  1,500  persons,  was  crowded  to  excess,  two-thirds  of  those 
present  being  women  of  color.  The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  hand- 
bill by  which  the  meeting  was  convened : — 

THE  FUGITIVE  BILL  ! 

THE    PANTING   SLAVE  I 

FREEIIEX    TO    BE   iLiDE   SLAVES  1 
Let  every  colored  man  and  woman  attend  the  GREAT  MASS  MEETING  to  be 
held  in 

ZION    CHURCH, 
Church  street,  comer  of  Leonard,  on 

Tuesday  Evening,  October  1, 1850, 
for  your  Liberty,  your  Fire-side  is  in  danger  of  being  invaded  !    Devote  this  night 
to  the  question  of  YOUR  DUTY  in  the  CRISLS, 

Shall  we  resist  Oppression  ?  Shall  we  defend  our  Liberties  ?  ShaU  we  be 
FREEMEN  or  SLAVES  ? 

By  order  of  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  ©f  13. 


32  APPENDIX. 

Shortly  after  seven  o'clock,  "William  P.  Powell  was,  on  motion, 
called  to  preside. 

The  Vice  Presidents  were — Messrs.  J.  M.  Smith,  J.  Powers,  Rev. 
S.  White,  D.  Bush,  Rev.  S.  E.  Cornish,  E.  Harrington,  J.  H.  Putnam, 
Rev.  J.  T.  Raymond,  J.  Harris,  S.  Drayton,  Rev.  H.  Wilson,  A.  Lyons, 
J.  J.  Jefferson,  J.  Jaffers,  J.  Purnell,  R.  H.  Cousins,  H.  Williams,  Capt. 
P.  Hawkins,  E.  A.  Potter,  and  P.  Guion. 

Secretaries— T.  J.  White,  M.  D.,  P.  H.  Reason,  R.  Hamilton. 

The  meeting  was  opened  with  prayer  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  White,  who 
supplicated  for  victory  over  their  enemies,  and  besought  the  Omnipo- 
tent Power  to  guide  and  protect  those  who  are  going  to  the  land  where 
men  do  not  trample  on  one  another. 

The  President,  in  addressing  the  assemblage,  said: — Fellow-citi- 
zens,— In  all  tilings  that  have  beauty,  tliere  is  nothing  to  man  more 
comely  than  liberty.  Give  me  the  Uberty  to  know,  to  utter,  and  to 
argue  freely,  above  all  liberties.  (Cheers.)  A  more  important  sub- 
ject than  this  never,  in  the  history  of  this  country,  came  before  the 
American  people,  and  it  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  this — Shall  we 
submit  to  the  iniquitous  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  which  subjects  every  free 
colored  man,  woman  and  child,  to  be  seized  upon,  hand-cuffed,  and 
plunged  into  perpetual  slavery  ?  Shall  the  blood-thirsty  slaveholder 
be  permitted,  by  this  unrighteous  law,  to  come  into  our  domiciles,  or 
workshops,  or  the  places  where  we  labor,  and  carry  off  our  wives  and 
children,  our  fathers  and  mothers,  and  ourselves,  without  a  struggle — 
(loud  cries  of  "  No,  no,") — without  resisting,  even  if  need  be,  unto 
death  ?  (Cheers.)  Or  shall  we  sit  down  and  tamely  submit  our  necks 
to  the  halter,  and  our  hmbs  to  the  shackles,  and  clank  our  chains  to 
the  sweet  music  of  passive  obedience  ?  (No,  no.)  Every  step  which 
we  may  take,  whether  it  be  backwards  or  forwards,  will  be  followed 
by  consequences  vast  and  momentous.  Let  us  be  united  as  one  man, 
regarding  our  first  rights  as  inherent  and  inalienable.  There  are  a 
thousand  and  one  ways  by  which  the  unsuspecting  colored  man,  wo- 
man and  child  may  be  entrapped  into  the  hands  of  the  black-hearted, 
villainous  kidnapper,  and  spirited  away  into  slavery  almost  instantly. 
The  case  of  James  Hamlet,  the  fugitive,  is  in  point.  There  is  one 
victim.     Will  you  submit  that  there  may  be  more  ?     (Loud  noes.) 

Hear  ye  no  rumblings  in  the  air  ? 
Hear  ye  no  earthquakes  underneath  ? 
Up,  up,  "Why  will  you  slumber  where 
The  sleeper  only  wakes  in  death  ? 

You  are  told  to  submit  peaceably  to  the  laws  ;  will  you  do  so  ?  (No, 
no.)  You  are  told  to  kiss  the  manacles  that  bind  you  ;  wUl  you  do 
so  ?  (No,  no,  no.)  The  law  is  made  by  the  people.  The  people 
have  told  you  that  you  must  do  so  ;  will  you  obey  them  ?  (No.) 
Upon  your  decision  this  night  hangs  the  liberty  of  millions.  This 
covenant  with  death,  and  agreement  with  hell,  must  be  trampled  under 
foot,  resisted,  disobeyed,  and  violated  at  all  hazards.  (Cheers.)  When 
the  mother  country  imposed  upon  the  infant  colonies  the  three-and-a- 
half  per  cent,  tax,  and  the  stamp  act,  the  very  first  blood  that  was 


APPENDIX.  33 

shed,  -was  shed  in  resistance  of  the  odious  act  by  a  colored  man  ;  the 
first  martyr  to  American  independence,  nobly  led  on  the  mob  of  white 
men,  and  was  the  first  to  receive  the  fire  of  the  British  soldiery  ;  and 
throughout  the  Revolutionary  and  late  war,  colored  men  stood  side  by 
side  with  white  men,  and  achieved  a  most  glorious  victory  in  the 
name  of  hberty.  "We  have  met  tliis  night  to  decide,  not  whether  we 
will  pay  the  government  a  three- and-a-half  per  cent,  tax,  or  an  impost 
duty,  but  whether  we  will  suffer  ourselves  and  famihes  to  be  made 
slaves.  And,  0  Powerful  Goodness,  Bountiful  Father,  Merciful 
Guide,  increase  us  in  that  wisdom  which  discovers  our  truest  interest. 
(Cheers.)  The  President  haying  called  on  the  meeting  to  act  peace- 
ably, concluded  by  saying  that  they  had  asked  the  Mayor  what 
course  they  were  to  pursue,  in  the  event  of  free  colored  men  and  wo- 
men being  seized  and  spirited  away  to  slavery,  but  that  functionary 
had  not  thought  proper  to  answer  them. 

The  several  sections  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  were  then  read  amid 
interruptions,  execrations,  and  cries  of  Shame.  At  the  conclusion,  a 
voice  in  the  gallery  asked,  was  there  no  more  of  it  ? — an  interroga- 
tory which  excited  the  risibilities  of  some,  which  were,  however, 
checked  by  the  President,  who  told  them  it  was  too  solemn  a  question 
for  merriment. 

Mr.  George  T.  Dowxikg  then  read  the  following  resolutions,  which 
were  received  with  cheers  and  expressions  of  approbation : — 

Whereas,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  passed  a  law  for 
the  avowed  purpose  of  reclaiming  persons  owing  service  in  one  State 
and  escaping  into  another,  and  approved  by  milliard  Fillmore,  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  on  the  18th  day  of  September, 
1850— 

And  whereas,  the  operation  of  said  law  allows  any  person  in  the 
Southern  States  to  go  into  any  court,  or  before  any  Justice  of  the 
Peace,  or  any  other  person  authorized  to  take  depositions  in  any 
State  or  organized  Territory  of  the  United  States,  and  swear  that  any 
colored  person  owes  him  or  her  service  or  labor,  and  has  escaped 
therefrom,  and  may  take  out  a  warrant  for  the  arrest  of  such  person 
in  any  United  States  Court,  in  any  State  or  Territory,  and  seize  such 
person,  with  or  without  a  warrant,  and  command  the  assistance  of 
bystanders  to  make  the  arrest — 

And  whereas,  any  person  so  arrested  may  be  taken  before  any 
United  States  Court  in  any  State  or  Territory  of  the  United  States, 
and  deprived  of  his  or  her  hberty  in  a  summary  manner,  by  any 
Judge,  Justice,  or  Commissioner  of  the  United  States — 

A7id  whereas,  any  person  so  arrested  and  tried,  is  stripped  of  the 
right  of  trial  by  jury,  deprived  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  contrary 
to  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States — 

And  whereas,  any  white  person  may  seize  and  arr,est  any  colored 
person,  and  drag  him  or  her  by  violence  before  any  United  States 
Judge,  Justice  or  Commissioner,  and  swear  away  the  liberty  of  any 
person  so  arrested — 

A7id  whereas,  any  person  assisting  another  to  escape,  either  before 


34  APPENDIX. 

or  after  trial,  or  is  known  to  conceal  a  person  claimed  as  a  slave,  is 
subject  to  a  fine  of  one  thousand  dollars ;  and  thus,  in  every  possible 
way,  placing  the  liberty  of  colored  persons  in  every  State  or  Territory 
of  this  Union  completely  at  the  mercy  of  slaveholders  or  their  agents, 
■with  every  safeguard  of  liberty  stricken  down — Therefore, 

1.  Resolved,  That  we  utterly  repudiate  the  law  and  its  provisions; 
that  it  is  so  repugnant  to  every  principle  of  justice,  that  it  can  have 
no  binding  force  whatever  upon  us ;  and  that  we  do  here,  in  the  sight 
of  God  and  before  all  men,  declare,  that  should  any  one  attempt  to 
execute  its  provisions  on  any  one  of  us,  either  by  invading  our  homes 
or  arresting  us  in  the  street,  we  will  treat  such  an  one  as  assaulting 
our  persons  with  intent  to  kill,  and,  God  being  our  helper,  will  use 
such  means  as  will  repel  the  aggressor,  and  defend  our  lives  and 
liberty. 

2.  Resolved,  Tliat  we  are  worthy  neither  of  our  homes  nor  of  the 
confidence  of  our  wives  and  children,  unless  we  are  prepared  to  sacri- 
fice oiu"selves  freely,  if  necessary,  on  the  altar  of  fireedom  and  in  their 
defence. 

3.  Resolved,  That  the  teachings  and  examples  of  our  countrymen, 
the  promptings  of  our  nature  as  men,  as  well  as  our  duty  towards 
God,  tell  us,  that  whenever  the  unjust  provisions  of  this  law  against 
God  and  humanity  shall  be  attempted  to  be  enforced  against  either 
of  us,  it  were  far  better  that  a  thousand  lives  perish  in  the  rescue, 
than  that  a  single  human  being  be  permitted  to  be  dragged  from  our 
midst  into  hopeless  bondage ;  and  that  we  desu'c  no  grave  prouder 
than  that  over  which  shall  stand  the  monument,  and  no  pjige  of  his- 
tory prouder  than  that  which  shall  second  the  deed,  of  such  rescue. 

.  4.  Resolved,  That  it  has  ever  been  our  aim  and  earnest  desire  to  be 
good  law-abiding  citizens,  and  that  we  will  strive  such  to  be ;  never- 
Sieless,  we  cannot  for  one  moment  entertain  the  idea  of  comphauce 
with  the  terms  of  that  bill,  its  force  being  lost  in  the  fact  that  it  is  at 
variance  with  the  laws  of  our  nature  and  of  God ;  and  further,  because 
we  beheve  it  to  be  at  variance  with  the  spirit  imd  letter  of  o\ur  Declar- 
ation of  Independence,  and  of  the  Constitution  established  under  that 
Declaration. 

5.  Resolved,  Tliat  the  provisions  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  of  1850, 
leaving  us  no  other  alternative,  we  must  adopt  the  motto  of  our  sister 
State,  Virginia — "  Resistance  to  tjTants  is  obedience  to  God." 

6.  Resolved,  That  we  declare  to  Mason,  and  the  aiders  and  abettors 
of  this  arbitrary  and  despotic  law,  in  the  language  of  Daniel  Webster, 
"  that  there  is  something  on  earth  greater  than  arbitrary  and  despotic 
power ;  the  lightning  has  its  power,  and  the  whirlwind  has  its  power, 
and  the  earthquake  has  its  power — but  there  is  something  among 
men  more  capable  of  shaking  despotic  power  than  hghtning,  whirl- 
wind or  earthquake — that  is  the  threatened  indignation  of  the  civilized 
world." 

1.  Resolved,  That  "  God  wiUed  us  free — man  willed  us  slaves.    We 
win,  as  God  will ;  God's  will  be  done." 
8.  Resolved,  That  inasmuch  as  desperate  efforts  axe  being  made  to 


APPENDIX.  35 

reclaim  fugitives  who  have  fled  for  liberty— to  reclaim  them  at  all 
costs— we,  sympathizing  with  such  fugitives,  and  believing  that  they 
would  be  justified  therein  by  the  promptings  of  nature,  by  the  pre- 
cepts of  Patrick  Heniy  and  of  Washington,  by  the  glorious  example 
C'f  Madison  and  Washington,  do  council  them  to  do  as  we  would — to 
arm  themselves  with  the  surest  and  most  deadly  weapons ;  to  resist 
unto  death,  for  which,  if  they  be  not  prepared,  we  advise  them  to 
repair,  with  all  possible  dispatch,  to  where  the  law,  as  well  as  nature, 
proclaims  them  free. 

9.  Resolved,  That  in  giving  ten  millions  of  dollars  to  the  South,  for 
land  which  the  South  never  owned — in  promising  to  pay  one  thousand 
dollars  each  to  the  South,  for  every  bondman  who  may  escape  there- 
from— in  converting  her  once  free  soil  into  a  hunting-gi-ound  for  the 
panting  fugitive,  and  in  offering  to  her  own  citizens  a  bribe  on  the 
one  hand  to  join  in  the  chase,  and  fine  and  imprisonment  on  the  other 
hand  for  refusing  to  do  so,  the  once  free  North  has  sold  herself,  body 
and  soul,  to  the  dark  spirit  of  slavery ;  and  has,  tlu-ough  her  chosen 
President  and  subservient  members  of  Congress,  declared,  "  in  tones 
that  will  pierce  the  ears  of  half  the  human  race,  that  the  last  great 
experiment  of  representative  government  has  failed,"  and  has  "  caused 
miUions  of  eyes  of  those  who  fed  their  inherent  love  of  liberty  upon 
the  success  and  prosperity  of  the  American  example,  to  turn  away 
from  our  deep  disgrace,  with  dissatisfaction  and  disgust;  and  has 
caused  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings  to  feel,  even  in  its 
grave,  a  returning  sensation  of  vitahty  and  resuscitation." 

10.  Resolved,  That  we  call  upon  all  American  citizens,  who  have 
any  regard  for  constitutional  law,  or  any  reverence  for  the  history  of 
our  glorious  past,  or  any  pride  in  om*  national  reputation  abroad,  to 
join  in  the  cry  of  repeal — repeal  the  infamous  bill,  which  barters  the 
life  and  Uberty  of  a  freeman  for  the  oath  of  any  wretch  who  may 
sweai'  that  he  is  a  slave. 

11.  Resolved,  That  we  will  circulate  petitions  to  the  Legislature  of 
this  State,  calling  for  a  law  to  protect  its  free  colored  citizens  from 
slavery ;  and  for  resolutions  instructing  the  members  of  Congress  to 
urge  the  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill. 

12.  Resolved,  That  we  will  send  petitions  to  Congress,  praying  for 
the  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  of  1850. 

13.  Resolved.  That,  actuated  by  nothing  odier  than  pure  humanity, 
in  attempting  to  carrj^  out  these  resolutions  whenever  necessity  re- 
quires them,  we  will  further  endeavor  to  infuse  their  healthful  spirit 
into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  our  fellow-citizens. 

14.  Resolved,  That  the  President  of  tliis  meeting  be  appointed  to 
receive  the  names  of  all  persons  who  may  be  willing  to  act  on  the 
Secret  Committee ;  and  all  persons  who  are  fugitive  to  report  them- 
selves to  the  Chairman  of  the  meeting,  who  must  have  their  real  name, 
and  the  name  of  their  master,  in  order  that  the  Secret  Committee  may 
know  what  to  do  in  the  premises. 

The  resolutions  were  sustained  in  spirited  speeches  by  Messrs. 
George  T.  Downing,  John  S.  Jacobs,  Rev.  Cliarles  Gardner,  Jacob 


36  APPENDIX. 

Russell,  Junius  C.  Mon-ell,  St,  de  Remy,  Benjamin  Stanley,  and 
Edward  V.  Clarke.  The  speakers  were  much  applauded.  At  the 
close  Rev.  Charles  B.  Ray  came  in  and  announced  that  the  sum  of 
S800  had  been  raised  (the  first  hundred  of  which  was  given 
by  a  colored  man,  Isaac  Hollexbeck,)  to  redeem  Hamlet  from 
bondage.  At  this  information  great  cheering  took  place,  and  soon 
after,  the  meeting  adjourned,  it  being  then  near  midnight. 


RESTORATION   OF   JAMES   HAMLET. 

The  sum  cf  eight  hundred  dollars  having  heen  subscribed  in  this  city  and  neigh- 
borhood, ($100  by  a  colored  man,  Isaac  HoUenbeck,)  a  benevolent  individual 
kindly  volunteered  to  go  to  Baltimore,  redeem  James  Hamlet,  and  accompany 
him  back  to  New-York.    He  went  in  fetters,  but  returned  a  free  man. 

A  great  demonstration  was  made  in  the  Park,  on  Saturday,  the  5th  October,  on 
the  arrival  of  Mr.  Hamlet.  Four  or  five  thousand  citizens,  white  and  colored, 
assembled  at  noon,  to  welcome  him  back  to  his  family  and  chosen  residence.  Mr. 
John  P.  Thompson  was  called  to  the  chair.  Addresses  were  made  by  Messrs 
John  J.  Ptaymond,  Robert  Hamilton,  Charles  B.  Ray,  and  Wm.  P.  Powell.  Much 
joy  and  enthusiasm  was  manifested.  The  speakers  were  heard  with  the  deepest 
attention,  and  were  frequently  cheered  while  depicting  the  unjust  and  cruel  pri- 
vations to  which  the  people  of  color  are  subjected  in  this  boasted  land  of  hber" 
ty,  and  in  being  obUged  to  seek  shelter  from  persecution  aaid  slavery  under  a 
monarchical  government,  which  once  oppressed  this  nation,  and  now  affords  an 
asylum  to  its  citizens  fleeing  from  the  oppression  of  the  government  of  the  modrf 
Repubhc  !  Hamlet  stood  at  the  right  of  the  chairman,  and  tears  ran  down  his 
cheeks  while  the  speakers  described  the  horrors  of  slavery.  The  following  resolu- 
tions were  passed,  when  the  ransomed  SLiN  was  escorted  to  his  home,  amidst 
great  cheering,  shouting  and  rejoicing. 

Whereas,  pursuant  to  the  passage  of  the  unconstitutional  law  enacted  by  Con- 
gress at  its  last  session,  James  Hamlet,  a  citizen  of  WiUiamburgh,  was  arrested 
and  sent  into  slavery  in  Marj-land,  without  due  proofs  of  law  ;  and 

Whereas,  through  the  generous  contributions  of  kind  friends  of  this  city,  the 
freedom  of  James  Hamlet  was  purchased  for  eight  hundred  dollars,  and  he  is  now 
restored  to  the  bosom  of  his  family ;  therefore 

Resolved,  That  we  hail  with  joy  this  hour,  not  only  because  it  restores  to  us  our 
brother,  whom  we  had  given  up  as  lost  to  the  partner  of  his  bosom — lost  to  his 
children  and  home — lest  to  friends  and  society — lost  to  all  church  privileges, 
and  every  thing  which  illumiaes  our  pathway  to  the  tomb — but  because  we  believe 
it  to  be  the  beginning  of  the  time  of  our  complete  enfranchisement. 

Resolved,  That  we  render  a  thousand  thanks  to  those  noble  men  who  have  so 
generously  contributed  to  the  emancipation  of  James  Hamlet,  and  we  invoke 
upon  them  the  blessings  of  the  God  of  the  oppressed. 

JOHN  P.  THOMPSON,  President. 

Alero  Lyons,    "> 

J.  M  Smith,        ^  yice  Presidents. 

L.  Napoleon,      j 

Wm.  C.Inners,J 

TVm.  p.  Powell,  Secretary. 


John  A.  Gray,  Printer,  T9  Fulton,  cor.  oj  Gold  'treei. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


3  0112  003219760 


J».» 


